Nepal's Foreign Exchange Reserves Are in A Hurry

 Nepal held the "Rain God Festival" (Macchindranāth) celebration, a giant 18-meter-high chariot participated in the parade, Lalitpur. On May 11, data from the Central Bank of Nepal showed that the consumer price index in April 2022 increased by 7.28% year-on-year, hitting a six-year high. Affected by the new crown epidemic, the situation in Russia and Ukraine and the interest rate hike by the Federal Reserve, Nepal is facing a crisis of rising import costs and capital outflows. The country's central bank warned that foreign exchange reserves had fallen to $9.6 billion, only enough to cover six months of consumption. The Nepalese government has announced restrictions on the import of non-necessities such as cars, cosmetics, tobacco and alcohol, and called on citizens to deposit foreign exchange in their own banks. 

Photographer: Prakash Mathema