Nepal Economy Profile 2008

Economy - overview

Nepal is among the poorest and least developed countries in the world with almost one-third of its population living below the poverty line. Agriculture is the mainstay of the economy, providing a livelihood for three-fourths of the population and accounting for 38% of GDP. Industrial activity mainly involves the processing of agricultural produce including jute, sugarcane, tobacco, and grain. Security concerns relating to the Maoist conflict have led to a decrease in tourism, a key source of foreign exchange. Nepal has considerable scope for exploiting its potential in hydropower and tourism, areas of recent foreign investment interest. Prospects for foreign trade or investment in other sectors will remain poor, however, because of the small size of the economy, its technological backwardness, its remoteness, its landlocked geographic location, its civil strife, and its susceptibility to natural disaster.

GDP (purchasing power parity)

$30.66 billion (2007 est.)

GDP (official exchange rate)

$9.627 billion (2007 est.)

GDP - real growth rate

2.5% (2007 est.)

GDP - per capita (PPP)

$1,100 (2007 est.)

GDP - composition by sector

agriculture: 38%
industry: 20%
services: 42% (FY05/06 est.)

Population below poverty line

30.9% (2004)

Household income or consumption by percentage share

lowest 10%: 2.6%
highest 10%: 40.6% (2004)

Inflation rate (consumer prices)

8.6% (November 2006 est.)

Labor force

11.11 million
note: severe lack of skilled labor (2006 est.)

Labor force - by occupation

agriculture: 76%
industry: 6%
services: 18% (2004 est.)

Unemployment rate

42% (2004 est.)

Distribution of family income - Gini index

47.2 (2004)

Budget

revenues: $1.153 billion
expenditures: $1.927 billion (FY06/07)

Industries

tourism, carpets, textiles; small rice, jute, sugar, and oilseed mills; cigarettes, cement and brick production

Industrial production growth rate

2.2% (FY05/06)

Electricity - production

2.511 billion kWh (2006)

Electricity - consumption

1.96 billion kWh (2006)

Electricity - exports

101 million kWh (2006)

Electricity - imports

266 million kWh (2006)

Oil - production

0 bbl/day (2005 est.)

Oil - consumption

11,550 bbl/day (2006 est.)

Oil - imports

11,530 bbl/day (2006 est.)

Oil - exports

0 bbl/day (2004)

Oil - proved reserves

0 bbl (1 January 2006 est.)

Natural gas - production

0 cu m (2005 est.)

Natural gas - consumption

0 cu m (2005 est.)

Natural gas - exports

0 cu m (2005 est.)

Natural gas - imports

0 cu m (2005)

Natural gas - proved reserves

0 cu m (1 January 2006 est.)

Agriculture - products

rice, corn, wheat, sugarcane, jute, root crops; milk, water buffalo meat

Exports

$830 million f.o.b.; note - does not include unrecorded border trade with India (2006)

Exports - commodities

carpets, clothing, leather goods, jute goods, grain

Exports - partners

India 67.9%, US 11.7%, Germany 4.7% (2006)

Imports

$2.398 billion f.o.b. (2006)

Imports - commodities

gold, machinery and equipment, petroleum products, fertilizer

Imports - partners

India 61.8%, China 3.8%, Indonesia 3.3% (2006)

Debt - external

$3.07 billion (March 2006)

Stock of direct foreign investment - at home

$NA

Stock of direct foreign investment - abroad

$NA

Market value of publicly traded shares

$963.5 million (2005)

Economic aid - recipient

$427.9 million (2005)

Currency (code)

Nepalese rupee (NPR)

Exchange rates

Nepalese rupees per US dollar - NA (2007), 72.446 (2006), 72.16 (2005), 73.674 (2004), 76.141 (2003)

Fiscal year

16 July - 15 July