Country witness nominal increase in foreign investment in 2020-21

KATHMANDU: The foreign investment inflow has slowed down in the country as the economy gets affected by Covid 19. The Nepal Rastra Bank (NRB) report on the Current Macroeconomic and Financial Situation of Nepal in the fiscal year (FY) 2020/21 has revealed that the increase in foreign investment rose by 1.2 per cent.

According to the report, the foreign investment has been recorded in the fiscal year 2020/21 was Rs 19.90 billion. The foreign investment in the FY 2019/20 was Rs 19.67 billion.

Meanwhile, a rise in the amount of repatriation was significant. The report showed that the repatriation in the FY 2020/21 is Rs 396.7 million which stands 98.6 per cent more than the previous FY. In FY 2019/20, the repatriation was Rs 199.8 million. However, commitment to foreign investment is encouraging. According to the Department of Industry, the foreign investment commitment recorded in FY 2020/21 accounted for Rs 132 billion.

The statistics of the department showed that the commitment included Rs 520 million in agriculture and forestry, Rs 540 million, Rs 3 billion in information and technology, Rs 1.1 billion in the production industry. Similarly, there are a commitment of Rs 5.98 billion in the service sector and Rs 18.31 billion in the tourism sector.