ADB estimates Nepal’s GDP to grow by 3.1% in 2021-22 FY

KATHMANDU: The Asian Development Bank (ADB) has projected that Nepal’s gross domestic products (GDP) will grow by 3.1 per cent in this fiscal year, 2021/022.

According to the ADB 2021, the GDP is expected to rebound by 3.1 per cent growth as against its contraction of 1.9 per cent in FY 2020. The ADB projection is 0.91 percentage points lower than the Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS) preliminary estimation of 4.01 per cent.

On the production side, the rice harvest is expected to increase by 1.3 per cent on a good monsoon. Agriculture is expected to grow by 2.4 per cent in FY 2021/022 up from 2.2 per cent in the last FY.

It said that manufacturing has been reopened with nearly 54 per cent of industries fully operational by mid-December 2021 against only 4 per cent in mid-July 2020. The production capacity rose to 50 per cent up from 29 per cent in mid-June.

The industry is expected to grow by 2.5 per cent in FY 2021/022. The service will take some time to recover, particularly in accommodation, food services, and travel and tourism. Foreign tourist arrivals collapsed by 81 per cent in FY 2020. Nonetheless, the service is likely to grow by 3.4 per cent in FY 2021/022.