February 21: The country experienced ballooning trade deficit of Rs 811.11 billion in the first seven months of the current fiscal year. According to the Department of Customs, the total volume of Nepal’s foreign trade during the review period stood at Rs 984.77 billion.
According to the data made public by the department on Wednesday, the country’s imports amounted to around Rs 897.94 billion while the export earnings were equal to Rs 86.83 billion as of mid-February in the current fiscal year.    
In comparison to the first seven months of the last fiscal year, the country’s imports decreased by 2.31 and exports dropped by 7.07 percent. According to the department, trade deficit decreased by 1.77 percent compared to last year as the overall trade dropped by 2.75 percent this year.

India remained as the largest trading partner of Nepal. Imports from India amounted to Rs 554.75 billion, while goods worth only Rs 58.72 billion were exported to the southern neighbour. Nepal suffered a trade deficit of Rs 496.36 billion with India alone in the seven months of the current fiscal year.

Similarly, Nepal suffered a trade deficit of Rs 171.23 billion with China, which is the second largest trading country. Goods worth Rs 173.91 billion were imported from China till mid-February while the export amount stood at Rs 1.85 billion.    
Similarly, the United Arab Emirates is at number three in the list of countries with high trade deficit of Nepal. During the seven months of the current fiscal year, the imports from UAE amounted to Rs 15.69 billion and the export stood at Rs 1.58 billion. The trade deficit with the UAE was Rs 14.11 billion.    
Nepal had the highest trade surplus with the United States in the review period. Imports from the US amounted to Rs 9.17 billion while export was Rs 9.54 billion. The trade surplus with the US amounted to Rs 364.7 million.    
According to the department, Nepal has a trade deficit with Denmark, Norway, Afghanistan and the Maldives among other countries.    
The highest import during the review period was of petroleum products. In the first seven months, diesel amounting to Rs 77.41 billion, petrol worth Rs 38.82 billion and LP Gas worth Rs 30.31 billion were imported into Nepal. Likewise, iron-related materials worth Rs 22.66 billion and smart phones worth Rs 17.38 billion were also imported. -- RSS