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Nepal - Trade & Marketing Information
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ALIGN="RIGHT" SRC="/cgtd/global/asia/nepal.gif"> Nepal - key economic data 


Economy Overview:

    Nepal is among the poorest and least developed countries in the world.
    Agriculture is the mainstay of the economy, providing a livelihood for over
    90% of the population and accounting for half of GDP. Industrial activity is
    limited, mainly involving the processing of agricultural produce (jute,
    sugarcane, tobacco, and grain). Production of textiles and carpets has
    expanded recently and accounted for 85% of foreign exchange earnings in
    FY93/94. Apart from agricultural land and forests, exploitable natural
    resources are mica, hydropower, and tourism. Agricultural production in the
    late 1980s grew by about 5%, as compared with annual population growth of
    2.6%. More than 40% of the population is undernourished. Since May 1991, the
    government has been encouraging trade and foreign investment, e.g., by
    eliminating business licenses and registration requirements in order to
    simplify domestic and foreign investment. The government also has been
    cutting public expenditures by reducing subsidies, privatizing state
    industries, and laying off civil servants. Prospects for foreign trade and
    investment in the 1990s remain poor, however, because of the small size of
    the economy, its technological backwardness, its remoteness, and
    susceptibility to natural disaster. The international community provides
    funding for 70% of Nepal's developmental budget and for 30% of total
    budgetary expenditures. The government, realizing that attempts to reverse
    three years of liberalization would jeopardize this vital support, almost
    certainly will move ahead with its reform program in 1995-96.


National product:
    GDP - purchasing power parity - $22.4 billion (1994 est.)
National product real growth rate:
    5% (1994 est.)
National product per capita:
    $1,060 (1994 est.)
Inflation rate (consumer prices):
    9.6% (June 1994)
Unemployment rate:
    NA%; note - there is substantial underemployment (1994)
Budget:
  revenues:
    $455 million
  expenditures:
    $854 million, including capital expenditures of $427 million (FY93/94 est.)



Industrial production:

    NA
Electricity:
  capacity:
    280,000 kW


  production:
    920 million kWh
  consumption per capita:
    41 kWh (1993)



Economic Activity


Industries:

    small rice, jute, sugar, and oilseed mills; cigarette, textile, carpet,
    cement, and brick production; tourism

Agriculture:
    rice, corn, wheat, sugarcane, root crops, milk, buffalo meat; not
    self-sufficient in food, particularly in drought years
Nepal - key foreign trade data 




Exports:

    $593 million (f.o.b., 1993) but does not include unrecorded border trade
    with India
  Commodities:
    carpets, clothing, leather goods, jute goods, grain
   Major Trade Partners::
    India, US, Germany, UK



Imports:

    $899 million (c.i.f., 1993)
  Commodities:
    petroleum products 20%, fertilizer 11%, machinery 10%
   Major Trade Partners::
    India, Singapore, Japan, Germany
External debt:
    $2 billion (1993 est.)
Nepal - Trade, Industry & Marketing information

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