NRB halves gold import quota to 10 kg per day

The Nepal Rastra Bank, the central bank of Nepal has slashed the gold import quota in a bid to curtail the depletion of the country’s foreign exchange reserves. Revising its unified directive on Sunday, the NRB has said that the banks are henceforth only allowed to import up to 10 kg of gold per day. The latest macroeconomic report revealed that the gold imports had nearly doubled to Rs 23.26 billion in the first six months of the current fiscal compared to Rs 12.21 billion worth of imports of the precious yellow metal in the corresponding period of previous fiscal.

Meanwhile, the gross foreign exchange reserves of the country had shrunk by 15.9 per cent in the review period to $9.89 billion. Based on the imports of 6 months of current fiscal (2021-22), the foreign exchange reserves of the banking sector was sufficient to cover the prospective merchandise imports of 7.2 months, and merchandise and services imports of 6.6 months, according to the NRB report.