KATHMANDU, Feb. 6 (Xinhua) -- Nepal's foreign exchange reserves reached a record high of 13.69 billion U.S. dollars in mid-January 2024, the country's central bank reported on Tuesday.
The figure marks a rise of 16.9 percent from 11.71 billion dollars in mid-July 2023 when the current 2023-24 fiscal year began, according to a monthly economic and financial report released by the Nepal Rastra Bank.
A surge in remittances and plunging imports contributed to growing forex reserves, the central bank said.
As the largest source of forex earnings for Nepal, remittances increased by 22.6 percent to 5.52 billion dollars during the first six months of the current fiscal year, while imports declined by 3.1 percent during the period.
"The record-high foreign exchange reserves show that Nepal's external sector of the economy is in good condition," said Prakash Kumar Shrestha, chief of the economic research department of the central bank.
"Reduced imports, however, suggest the economic activities in the country have been sluggish," he told Xinhua.
According to the central bank, the existing forex reserves are adequate to finance the import of goods and services for 12.1 months. ■
