Nepal’s foreign trade deficit stands at Rs 1,440 billion in last fiscal year

KATHMANDU: Nepal suffered a trade deficit of Rs 1,440 billion while carrying out a foreign trade of total Rs 1,745 billion in the last fiscal year 2023/24.

As per the foreign trade statistics of the last fiscal year released by the Department of Customs, the country imported goods worth Rs 592 billion during the period while it exported goods worth Rs 152 billion.

The import-export and overall foreign deficit has decreased in the fiscal year as compared to previous fiscal year, reads the statistics.

The trade deficit had reached Rs 1,768 billion in the fiscal year 2022/23 while importing goods worth Rs 1,611 billion and exporting goods worth Rs 157 billion.  The foreign trade deficit was Rs 1,454 billion in the previous fiscal year.

The import was decreased by 1.16 percent, export by 3.03 percent, overall foreign trade by 1.33 percent and foreign trade deficit by 0.96 percent in the last fiscal year as compared to previous fiscal year. The ratio of the last fiscal year is equal to 10.45 per cent.

India remained Nepal’s largest trading partner, Nepal had a trade deficit of Rs 893.17 billion with India in the last fiscal year. Nepal had imported goods worth Rs 996.68 billion while it exported goods worth Rs 103.17 billion.

Nepal’s second largest trade deficit is with China amounting to Rs 296.18 billion. Nepal imported goods worth Rs 298.77 billion while exported goods worth Rs 258.8 million.

Similarly, United Arab Emirates, Ukraine and Malaysia are in third, fourth and fifth position respectively with Nepal bearing the most trade deficit.

Nepal makes highest profit in trade with Denmark

During the last fiscal year, Nepal achieved its highest trade profit in transactions with Denmark.  It witnessed a profit of Rs 467.05 million with Denmark while the imports were valued at Rs 354.05 million followed by the exports worth Rs 822.01 million.

The second-highest trade profit was recorded with Afghanistan, amounting to Rs 466 million. Nepal imported goods worth Rs 27.6 million from Afghanistan and exported goods valued at Rs 493.06 million.

In terms of imports, petroleum products were the highest, with diesel worth Rs 143.97 billion, petrol worth Rs 68.10 billion, and LPG (cooking gas) worth Rs 55.61 billion.

Imports of iron products amounted to Rs 39.03 billion, while smartphones accounted for Rs 28.66 billion in imports.

Likewise, Nepal imported gold worth Rs 23.65 billion.

During the period Nepal exported various goods such as carpets, cardamom, fruit products, and steel items. It exported carpets worth Rs 10.57 billion, and cardamom worth Rs 7.93 billion.