Jan Mon 2024 02:26:25
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Kathmandu. According to the statistics of Nepal Rastra Bank, "Deposits with Nepali banks and financial institutions have reached 60 trillion and 48 billion." According to bankers, huge amount of deposits have not stopped since then. "Different insurance companies, foreign offices and many projects are also bringing in large amounts of deposits," says a banker.
At present investment has not increased, new stress has been created by increasing deposits. Banks' interest expenses increase when there are more deposits than required. Minimum interest should be paid on deposits. The National Bank has arranged that the interest rate cannot be reduced by more than 10 percent from the average interest rate of the market so that the interest rate can be operated only within a narrow circle.
By the end of July, banks and financial institutions had a total of 56 trillion 11 billion deposits. Since then, 4 trillion 37 billion deposits have been added in 4 months and 9 days. Whereas, in the meantime, last October, deposits were reduced by 3.5 trillion compared to mid-October. But in recent days, a high increase in deposits has been seen.
This is the reason why now the credit to deposit ratio (CD ratio) of banks and financial institutions has fallen to 80.1 percent. Rastra Bank has opened the way to invest 90 rupees by taking a deposit of 100 rupees. A few months ago, most of the banks' loans reached more than 92 percent. But now it has dropped to 80 percent on average. According to this figure, banks are now in a position to invest nearly 6 billion rupees in loans.
Excess deposits in banks are not beneficial for borrowers either. The National Bank has set a limit for the commercial banks that the interest rate difference (spread) between loans and deposits should be maintained at 4 percent. Similar limits have been set for development banks and finance companies. But the spread calculation method is different. It does not say that 'if 5 percent interest is given to the depositor, only 9 percent should be taken in the loan'.
Even now money is not coming from suspicious places. As the government has accelerated the payment of various development projects, such money has started entering the bank. Other institutional deposits are also increasing.
But the real source of money is the central bank. The difference between money leaving and entering the country directly affects the liquidity of the market. Nepal has to pay foreign currency while paying for imports, foreign travel and all kinds of expenses incurred abroad. At that time, the local currency in the market (including deposits) is deposited in the central bank and the equivalent foreign currency is paid abroad by the National Bank.
A year and a half ago, i.e. in June 2079, the net loss exceeded 2 trillion 88 billion. Which has come to a profit of more than 1 trillion 47 billion till the end of October. Even the current account, which has been showing a loss for years, has now turned into a profit. It shows the current financial health of the country, which includes data on international trade and large transactions such as remittances.
In the previous 7 years, the current account, which was in profit for only 6 months, is now showing a surplus of 96 billion 320 million, according to the figures released by the National Bank of October. This account started to be positive since last July. The data after mid-October has not been published.
Deposits have also increased due to the expenditure and investment by the government and various donor agencies and foreign investors, the expenditure by foreign tourists and the increase in prices in the domestic market. The recent gradual improvement in the stock market has also helped the bank deposits to increase as people have started selling shares at higher prices to repay loans.