Nepal Economy 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):
$7.323 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.)

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.)

Population below poverty line:
30.9% (2004)

Household income or consumption by percentage share:
lowest 10%: 2.6%
highest 10%: 40.6% (2004)

Distribution of family income - Gini index:
47.2 (2004)

Inflation rate (consumer prices):
8.6% (November 2006 est.)

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

Agriculture - products:
rice, corn, wheat, sugarcane, jute, root crops; milk, water buffalo meat

Industries:
tourism, carpet, textile; 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 - exports:
0 bbl/day (2004)

Oil - imports:
11,530 bbl/day (2006 est.)

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.)

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 - partners:
India 61.8%, China 3.8%, Indonesia 3.3% (2006)

Economic aid - recipient:
$427.9 million (2005)

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)

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)