Nepal has made Rs 12.49 billion profit in service trade in the first seven months of the current fiscal year, according to the central bank data.
Nepal had lost Rs 822 million in service trade in the same period of last fiscal year, the data revealed, adding that Nepal has been making profit in service trade for the past two fiscal years. “But the profit figure during the review period is the highest so far.”
The total trade deficit reached Rs 339.81 billion during the seven months as the country imported merchandise worth Rs 326.45 billion that is seven times the total export earning.
However, export of service has exceeded export of merchandise, the central bank revealed, adding that the total export of merchandise stood at Rs 52.89 compared to export of service trade worth Rs 69.64 billion due to tourism, remittance, insurance, information technology, banking, telecom and consultancy.
However, the country has also seen a total of Rs 27.01 billion outflow of money in service trade in seven months due to expenses at ports, transportation cost of outgoing workers, and expenditure made by students going abroad.
Nepalis have also started vacationing abroad recently.
However, there is a huge scope of service trade for Nepal as the merchandise trade has seen increased deficit due to Technical Barriers and also non-Technical Barriers.