Nepal Economy—overview: Nepal is among the poorest and least developed countries in the world with more than half of its population living below the poverty line. Agriculture is the mainstay of the economy providing a livelihood for over 80% of the population and accounting for 40% of GDP. Industrial activity mainly involves the processing of agricultural produce including jute sugarcane tobacco and grain. Production of textiles and carpets has expanded recently and accounted for about 80% of foreign exchange earnings in the past two years. Apart from agricultural land and forests exploitable natural resources are mica hydropower and tourism. Agricultural production is growing by about 5% on average as compared with annual population growth of 2.5%. Since May 1991 the government has been moving forward with economic reforms particularly those that encourage trade and foreign investment e.g. by eliminating business licenses and registration requirements in order to simplify investment procedures. The government has also been cutting expenditures by reducing subsidies privatizing state industries and laying off civil servants. More recently however political instability - five different governments over the past few years—has hampered Kathmandu's ability to forge consensus to implement key economic reforms. Nepal has considerable scope for accelerating economic growth by exploiting its potential in hydropower and tourism areas where there has recently been foreign investment interest. Prospects for foreign trade or investment in other areas will remain poor however because of the small size of the economy its technological backwardness its remoteness its landlocked geographic location and its susceptibility to natural disaster. The international community's role of funding more than 60% of Nepal's development budget and more than 28% of total budgetary expenditures will likely continue as a major ingredient of growth. GDP: purchasing power parity—$31.1 billion (1997 est.) GDP—real growth rate: 4.2% (1997 est.) GDP—per capita: purchasing power parity—$1 370 (1997 est.) GDP—composition by sector: agriculture: 40% industry: 21% services: 39% (1997 est.) Inflation rate—consumer price index: 7.5% (1997 est.) Labor force: total: 10 million (1996 est.) by occupation: agriculture 81% services 16% industry 3% note: severe lack of skilled labor Unemployment rate: NA%; substantial underemployment (1996) Budget: revenues: $536 million expenditures: $818 million including capital expenditures of $NA (FY96/97 est.) Industries: tourism carpet textile; small rice jute sugar and oilseed mills; cigarette; cement and brick production Industrial production growth rate: 14.7% (FY94/95 est.) Electricity—capacity: 292 000 kW (1995) Electricity—production: 980 million kWh (1996) Electricity—consumption per capita: 48 kWh (1996 est.) Agriculture—products: rice corn wheat sugarcane root crops; milk water buffalo meat Exports: total value: $419 million (f.o.b. 1997 est.) but does not include unrecorded border trade with India commodities: carpets clothing leather goods jute goods grain partners: India US Germany UK Imports: total value: $1.6 billion (c.i.f. 1997 est.) commodities: petroleum products 20% fertilizer 11% machinery 10% partners: India Singapore Japan Germany Debt—external: $2.6 billion (1997 est.) Economic aid: recipient: ODA $411 million (FY97/98) Currency: 1 Nepalese rupee (NR) = 100 paisa Exchange rates: Nepalese rupees (NRs) per US$1—63.265 (January 1998) 58.010 (1997) 56.692 (1996) 51.890 (1995) 49.398 (1994) 48.607 (1993) Fiscal year: 16 July—15 July
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