February 12: Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Bishnu Prasad Paudel has said that macroeconomic indicators of the country are at risk due to the negative impacts on the global economy and challenges stemming from the country's internal causes.    
He, however, said he was continuously effortful to resolve economic problems in the country. FM Paudel made this statement while delivering a speech on the issue relating to the half-yearly budget review report for the current fiscal year during Sunday’s parliament meeting.    
"I am effortful in shoring up business confidence of the private sector, making relations between the government and the private sector credible and helpful, ending anomalies and divergences in revenue mobilisation, and resolving existing problems in the implementation of budget," he told the House of Representatives.    
“However, it would take time for his efforts to bear fruit due to structural limitations and some foreign impacts,” he added.    
The government has come up with the policy of maintaining budget balance, stressing the need for increasing capital expenditure, reducing expenditures except for urgent need, making the revenue administration prompt and increasing the tax obedience and controlling its leakage, he informed.    
 

Economic growth target of 8 per cent unattainable    
The finance minister has made it clear that the target of 8 per cent economic growth rate set by the government for the current fiscal year cannot be attained.    
“An assessment of the existing trend of the economy shows that the target of eight per cent economic growth rate cannot be achieved," he said.    
The finance minister stated that although it has been estimated the production of paddy is likely to increase this year and there has been a gradual improvement in the tourism sector, the production-oriented industries have not been able to run in full capacity, causing a slowdown in the economic growth rate.    
Similarly, the inflation ceiling set for the current fiscal year has overshot. "The target was to contain the inflation to 7 per cent in the current fiscal year. However, the year-on-year inflation based on the CPI has reached 7.26 per cent," he added. -- RSS