Nepal’s economy not like Sri Lanka’s, but can go that way: Former central bank Guv

Kathmandu, July 2 (IANS) Dipendra Bahadur Chhetri, the former Governor of Nepal Rastra Bank (NRB), has said that the situation of Nepal’s economy is not like that of Sri Lanka.

However, if the political rights are given to the wrong persons like in Sri Lanka, there is a possibility of Nepal becoming the next Sri Lanka, he said, Republica reported.

Speaking at an interaction programme on the current economic situation in Nepal held in Kathmandu, Chhetri said the present situation in Sri Lanka is due to arbitrary tax rates imposed by the same family as the president, prime minister and finance minister.

He also mentioned that Nepal should not be associated with Sri Lanka as it has just held local elections and is now preparing to hold federal and provincial elections, Republica reported.

Similarly, the former central bank Governor said that Nepal’s foreign exchange reserves, SDRs and gold in foreign currency accounted for seven months of imports to meet the growing imports and consumption of petroleum products.

Likewise, he doubted that the forthcoming monetary policy to be introduced by the NRB would be as extensive as in the past. He said that the loans given by the banks to expand the capacity of the industry were used for import.