KATHMANDU: Economic Digest, a daily morning email digest, is basically a relatable summation of important business news from Nepal into easy-to-understand summaries.
Tea industry falls amid COVID-19
As a result of COVID-19 pandemic the demand for Nepali organic orthodox tea has dropped to near zero. According to tea industrialists and traders, they have not received new orders since the COVID-19 outbreak in China in December last year.
Tea importers from countries like the US, Germany, China, Japan, France and the Netherlands used to visit tea gardens in March-April to place orders.
But due to COVID-19 pandemic, they neither visited the tea gardens, nor have placed any order this year.
GBIA project work hampered due to lack of construction materials
As the supply of construction materials is limited due to the nationwide lockdown, the project has fallen short on construction materials.
“There is very limited stock of construction materials like cement, rods, bricks and even hardware, as suppliers have not supplied construction materials to the construction site due to the lockdown,” said, Prabesh Adhikari, project director at GBIA.
Works like preparation to install lights at the runway and other works at the terminal are taking place despite the lockdown. According to the project officials, the project has 80 Nepali and 28 Chinese workers at the site at the moment.
Construction works at Bheri-Babai continues despite lockdown
National pride project, Bheri-Babai Diversion Multipurpose Project has been able to carry out construction works even during the lockdown period.
According to Krishna Upadhyaya, information officer and divisional engineer of the project, the project is focusing on the works which has to be completed before the monsoon.
The government has directed the project to keep the workers in closed camps with daily health checkup, maintaining distance of one meter and management of ambulance in order to continue works of projects in the country.
FNCCI requests NRB to reduce interest rate on loans by 3%
The Federation of Nepalese Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FNCCI) has urged Nepal Rastra Bank (NRB) to adjust the interest rate on loans so that the pandemic struck business sector can withstand the loss it’s doomed to go through.
It has demanded the regulating authority NRB to bring down the interest on loans by three percentage points.
FNCCI also recommended the government to reduce the gap in the interest at deposit and interest at loan and urged the central bank to manage refinancing loan facilities for businesses at two percent to pay interest of businesses in the tourism, manufacturing, agriculture and export sectors.
CNI urges government to bring medium and long term strategy to face economic crisis
The Confederation of Nepalese Industries (CNI) has urged the government to bring extensive medium and long-term plans and strategies to tide over the adverse situation in the aftermath of the coronavirus pandemic.
CNI suggested directly handing over the amount equivalent to approximately 3 percent of the GDP to the people working in the informal economy, the impoverished and the deprived communities.
Likewise, it suggested decreasing the business and industrial investment cost at least by 5 percent, retaining the CCD at 85 percent and encouraging the commercial banks for a 7 percent interest on fixed deposits and a 5 percent interest on the general deposit.
(Compiled and prepared by Swastik Aryal and Nitish Lal Shrestha)
Nepal Economic Digest is a daily morning email digest, basically relatable summations of the most important business news, happenings from Nepal into easy-to-understand summaries. The Institute for Strategic and Socio-Economic Research (ISSR), Nepal’s independent think tank, and Khabarhub — Nepal popular news portal — have joined hands to disseminate news from Nepal in the form of Economic Digest.
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