Economy
Nepal GDP grew 4% in Q4 2025/26, but Bhote Koshi floods cloud 2026/27
Electricity led growth in the last quarter of 2025/26. The Bhote Koshi floods have since disrupted power output, a border crossing and the state's budget.
Why a Kathmandu-Dhangadhi flight costs more than a flight to Delhi
State-set fare limits, expensive jet fuel and a five-month earning season sit behind a fare gap that has reached Nepal's parliament, according to The Kathmandu Post.
Beni-Jomsom road reopens as late-monsoon rain batters Nepal's paddy and sugarcane
Containers stranded in Mustang for two weeks are moving again, but soaked harvests across the breadbasket show how exposed Nepal's supply lines and farm incomes remain.
Remittance money meets inflation as Nepal shops for Dashain
Record transfers from abroad should make this the biggest festival season yet. Prices, a closed China border and nervous shoppers are getting in the way.
Nepal's revenue rises 16% but trails target as the flood squeezes northern trade
The government collected Rs 184.58bn in the first two months of 2026/27, against a target of Rs 214.81bn. Last year it met 83.5% of its revenue goal; this year's is Rs 1.58 trillion.
Nepal's provinces spent about two-thirds of their budgets, then planned Rs 292bn more
The seven provinces budgeted about Rs 288bn last year and spent Rs 184bn. This year's budgets are slightly larger, and still lean on federal money and capital projects that rarely finish on time.
Nepal's inflation nears 6%, and the figures predate the flood
Consumer prices rose 5.96% in the year to mid-August, more than triple the rate a year earlier. Cooking oil, fruit and transport led, and wholesale prices rose faster still.
World Bank and ADB cut Nepal's growth forecasts as the Rasuwa flood hits industry
The World Bank now expects growth of 3.7% this fiscal year and the ADB 4.1%. Both say reconstruction will lift output later, at the cost of higher prices and a wider deficit.
Yarsagumba prices fall by half as Nepal's herb trade shifts to humbler plants
Bulk prices for the caterpillar fungus have slid from Rs 3.2m a kilo before the pandemic, and harvests keep shrinking. Lowland herbs sold to India are growing instead.
Nepal's food imports jump 47% in two months, led by edible oil and vegetables
Customs data show farm and food imports of Rs 87.1bn from mid-July to mid-September. Grain purchases fell, but edible oil and vegetables surged.
Nepal's tea exports fell 15% after India's testing rules left tonnes stuck at the border
Two months of mandatory laboratory checks closed factories in Ilam and Jhapa. India has eased the rules, but growers who sell nine-tenths of their orthodox tea there are wary.
Black cardamom earns Nepal a record Rs 12.6bn as the new crop opens at a higher price
The spice became Nepal's second-largest export last year on price rather than volume. Almost all of it still goes to India unprocessed, and farmers keep a small share of the value.
Indian fertiliser reaches Nepal for wheat after a paddy season of empty depots
Rail consignments of urea and DAP from a 60,000-tonne government deal are arriving at Birgunj, after farmers queued at empty depots for fertiliser during rice planting.
Two mountains earn almost all of Nepal's climbing royalties
Everest in spring and Manaslu in autumn account for nearly nine-tenths of permit revenue, leaving dozens of other open peaks with a sliver of the income after the 2025 fee rise.
One year after the uprising, insurers have paid less than two-fifths of claims
The September 2025 protests cost the private sector Rs 33.5bn (about $216m) by official count. Businesses are still waiting for most of the money.
Tourism recovers from the uprising as China returns and Manaslu snows shut
Arrivals rose 12% in September and climbing royalties are up, but bad weather and a still-gutted Hilton show how fragile the season remains.
Nepal's workers sent home more in one month than the state invested in a year
Remittances reached Rs 2.36 trillion ($16.19bn) in 2025/26, more than the national budget, while capital spending fell below half its target and private credit stayed weak.
Nepal's Rs 1.78trn trade gap and the narrow road to China
Nepal buys more than six rupees of goods for every one it sells. The August flood has shown how fragile its alternative to India is.
A decade in, Nepal's Fast Track expressway is half built and still has no agreed starting point
The army-built road meant to bring the Terai within an hour of Kathmandu now has a 2030 deadline, a cost of about Rs 212bn and the same unresolved question over where it begins that it faced in 2018.
Kathmandu's property market wakes up, helped by a rush to beat the taxman
Land registration revenue hit a three-year high as buyers raced a capital gains tax increase, and the central bank has loosened home-loan limits.
Nepal's two new international airports are still waiting for international flights
Pokhara has its first daily foreign service, nearly four years after opening. Bhairahawa has had none since March. Both have bills to pay.
Why Nepal's factories run at less than half their capacity
Cement kilns idle, steel mills lose their Indian market and new factory registrations fall. Manufacturing now makes up less than 6% of the economy.