KATHMANDU: The country witnessed a trade deficit with all the trading partners in the SAARC region except Afghanistan in fiscal 2015-16. According to the data recently unveiled by the Department of Customs (DoC) the country is gradually losing trade surplus with trading partners in the region.
In the last fiscal, the country had witnessed trade deficit worth Rs 713.13 billion as it imported goods worth Rs 781.72 billion against exports of Rs 68.59 billion. As compared to the previous fiscal, import and export growth deteriorated by 0.57 per cent and 19.49 per cent, respectively, while the trade deficit increased by 1.73 per cent.
As two-third of the country’s trade takes place with neighbouring India, the SAARC region covers a majority of the country’s total trade volume. Of the total trade conducted by the country worth Rs 850.31 billion, the country’s trade with the SAARC region covered around 62 per cent of the total trade. The country was enjoying trade surplus with Bangladesh till 2013-14, but trade deficit with Bangladesh surged by a whopping Rs 3.52 billion in fiscal 2015-16, according to DoC.
