Migrant workers sent home Rs480.50 billion in remittances in the first five months period of the current fiscal year.

This is an increase of 23 percent in the review period against a decrease of 6.3 percent in the same period of the previous year, according to Nepal Rastra Bank, the country’s central bank.

Official statistics show that 347,340 new and re-entry labour permits were issued in the first five months of the current fiscal year ended mid-December 2022, which works out to an average of 2,315 daily. If this speed keeps up, the figure will cross 1 million by mid-July next year, industry insiders say.

“The rise in remittance earnings has been attributed to the increased number of Nepalis going abroad,” said Gunakar Bhatta, spokesperson for Nepal Rastra Bank.

According to the Central Bureau of Statistics, there are more than 2.1 million Nepali citizens living outside the country, a figure that represents 7.4 percent of the national population.

The Department of Foreign Employment has issued over 4.7 million new entry labour approvals to Nepali workers for overseas employment since 2008-09 and renewed over 1.8 million labour approvals since 2011-12.

Remittance inflows increased 13.1 percent to 3.71 billion in US dollar terms in the review period, against a decrease of 6.8 percent in the same period of the previous year.

With the rise in remittance income, Nepal’s gross foreign exchange reserves increased 6.3 percent to Rs1.29 trillion in mid-December 2022 from Rs1.21 trillion in mid-July 2022.

Of the total foreign exchange reserves, reserves held by Nepal Rastra Bank increased 7.8 percent to Rs1.13 trillion in mid-December from Rs1.05 trillion in mid-July 2022.

Reserves held by banks and financial institutions, except Nepal Rastra bank, decreased 3.8 percent to Rs153.34 billion in mid-December 2022 from Rs159.41 billion in mid-July 2022.

The share of Indian currency in total reserves stood at 22.9 percent in mid-December 2022.

Accordion to the central bank report, the current account remained at a deficit of Rs37.91 billion in the review period as compared to a deficit of Rs298.51 billion in the same period of the previous year.

In the review period, capital transfer decreased 25.3 percent to Rs3.47 billion and net foreign direct investment (FDI) remained at Rs604.9 million.

In the same period of the previous year, capital transfer and net FDI amounted to Rs4.64 billion and Rs7.07 billion respectively.

According to the report, the balance of payments (BOP) remained at a surplus of Rs45.87 billion in the review period compared to a deficit of Rs195.01 billion in the same period of the previous year.