Nepal to achieve 5.2pc growth this FY

KATHMANDU, Apr 29 (Xinhua): Nepal's economy will grow by 5. 2 per cent during the current fiscal year (FY), up from 3.5 per cent which the country had achieved in the last fiscal year, recent government estimates shows.
The preliminary estimates report released by Nepal's Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS) on Tuesday in Kathmandu, said such a growth has been estimated for the first time in half a decade since 2007-08.
The report attributes the estimated growth to the improving performance of agriculture and non-agriculture sector.
The CBS unveiled its estimation, Report on National Accounts- 2014, on the basis of economic activities that took place during the first eight months of the current fiscal year.
Nepal government had however targeted the growth rate at 5.5 per cent in its annual budget for the fiscal year 2013-14.
Similarly, the CBS prediction of Nepal's economic growth also does not match with what major donors including Asian Development Bank (ADB) and World Bank (WB) had forecasted. According to the ADB and WB, Nepal will achieve economic growth of 4.5 per cent in the current fiscal year.
"Nepal's economy that witnessed continued downward trend for the last five fiscal years seems to be reviving during the current fiscal year," said Bikash Bista, director general of CBS during the report launch programme.