Kathmandu — Commercial banks have further reduced interest rates for the month of Kartik. Out of the 20 operating commercial banks, 19 have published their interest rate notices. Compared to Ashoj, the average deposit interest rate in Kartik has dropped by 0.31 percentage points.

Nepal Investment Mega Bank has not yet released its interest rate information. In Ashoj, the maximum interest rate for individual fixed deposits was 6%. For Kartik, it has been reduced to 5.75%.

Currently, the highest interest rate is offered by NIC Asia Bank, which provides 5.75%. The lowest rate is from Himalayan Bank, offering only 4%. Banks offer 1% higher interest on remittance accounts compared to individual fixed deposit accounts.

A total of 14 banks have reduced the maximum interest rate on individual fixed deposits. Citizens Bank is the only one that has increased its rate, while the rest have kept theirs unchanged.

For some time now, banks have had a surplus of funds available for lending, which has led to a decline in interest rates. At present, banks have over NPR 1 trillion available for loans.