Nepal requests Overseas Nationals to assist in increasing Forex Reserves. 

On Saturday, the Finance Minister of India’s neighbor Nepal, Janardan Sharma informed that Nepal is requesting its citizens living abroad to deposit funds in domestic banks in a bid to ensure that the financial system has enough liquidity and preserve foreign exchange reserves. However, while interacting with Reuters he denied that Nepal is going through an economic crisis despite the impact of soaring commodity prices as the tourist industry, a major source of revenues, struggles to recover after the COVID-19 pandemic. This month Nepal imposed restrictions on luxury goods imports to rein in capital outflows. Foreign exchange reserves fell over 18% to $9.6 billion as of mid-March from mid-July - enough for around six months of imports.

Mr. Sharma further said that by depositing their savings in Nepal, overseas Nepalis would continue to "maintain their link as well as benefit from 6 to 7% interest" offered by the domestic banks of Nepal. He further commented that the country’s economy is not struggling and its situation could not be compared with Sri Lanka. That South Asian country is facing its worst economic crisis in decades and anti-government protests. In Nepal, remittances by overseas workers, which are important for external payments, declined 3.0% to $5.3 billion between mid-July to mid-March, compared with a 5% increase in the same period a year earlier.