“Economy is being dogged by downward spiral in industrial growth”

KATHMANDU, APRIL 16: The Confederation of Nepalese Industries (CNI) said that though the external sector of the national economy is satisfactory, its internal indicators continue to move downward. President of the CNI, Rajesh Kumar Agrawal made such a remark while speaking at the 21st Annual General Meeting (AGM) of the confederation held today in the capital.

“Of course, the state of the  Balance of Payment (BoP)  is positive and the amount of foreign exchange reserves has hit an 8-year high,” he argued by adding,”  Nevertheless, the internal economic scenario is still bleak. This is because the level of domestic demand is at its lowest. With this, some small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) have already closed down and others are on the brink. The same is the case when it comes to large-scale industries.”

Stating that the production capacity of both kinds of enterprises/industries is not just limited to just 40 per cent on average, he bemoaned that they have lately been suffering from the problem of undeclared load-shedding.

According to him, the downward spiral in industrial growth has discouraged entrepreneurs/businesspersons from investing in various economic sectors by borrowing from the Banks and Financial Institutes (BFIs). This is also said to be leading to the accumulation of investable capital worth billions of rupees in the BFIs as credit flow is less compared to deposit collection.