CONSUL GENERALS APPOINTED

CONSUL GENERALS APPOINTED IN INDIA, TIBET

Kathmandu, 23 Nov.: Joint secretary was appointed Tuesday consul
general to Kolkata, India, and Hari Prasad
Basyal to Lhasa, Tibet, by the cabinet.
Jitendra Singh was appointed chairman of water
supply corporation.
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POSTAL STAMP TO REMEMBER MOHAN GOPAL
KHETAN

Kathmandu, 23 Nov.: A postal stamp of Rs. 5
denomination with a portrait of Mohan Gopal Khetan has
been issued by Postal Services Department.
Khetan was a businessman and industrialist.
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RUPEE DROPS TO HISTORIC LOW AGAINST GREEKBACK

Kathmandu, 23 Nov.: Weak Indian currency against the dollar pulled Nepali rupee to its historic low
today [Tuesday], Dikshya Singh reports in The Himalayan Times..

The rupee plunged to Rs 83.5 against the greenback on the foreign exchange markets after Indian currency, with which Nepali currency is pegged, touched the historic low — INR 52.78 — yesterday. However, the Indian foreign exchange rate redeemed itself a little reaching INR 52.58 at around 11 this morning. Though Nepal’s financial conditions have nothing to do with the current depreciation of its currency, the fixed exchange rate regime with India has pulled Nepali currency along with it on the bitter-sweet downward ride making the imports from third country dearer.

For Nepal, strong dollar translates into expensive imports from third countries but at the same time the dollar income — remittances and tourist income — from foreign countries will go up.

“Strong dollar will be leading to higher inflow of remittance as most of the migrant workers are paid in dollars,” said economist Chiranjibi Nepal.

The other advantage of strong dollar is the payment for the exports will be higher. “Unfortunately for Nepal, merchandise and service export to third countries is nominal, and we cannot exploit the advantage of stronger dollar,” he added. “But imports from third countries will become dearer.” The major setback the country can face with rising dollar

is difficulty in debt servicing. “The government target in the budget to repay debt and interest will meet a shortfall,” said Nepal.

This fiscal year’s budget has designated Rs 20.3 billion for debt servicing at the estimated rate of Rs 85 a dollar. According to the Ministry of Finance, the rupee hitting Rs 85 against the greenback will squarely hit the government till.



Dollar trend

2007-11-18 Rs 62.90

2009-03-11 Rs 82.70

2010-05-03 Rs 70.65

2011-11-22 Rs 83.5

(Source: Nepal Rastra Bank)

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