Kathmandu, May 20: Public Debt Management Office says Nepal’s public debt has climbed to Rs 29.75 trillion, nearing the Rs 30 trillion mark, after rising by Rs 532.91 billion in the first 10 months of the current fiscal year.
Between mid-July and mid-May, the government borrowed Rs 365.16 billion in net new loans, while another Rs 167.75 billion was added due to exchange rate losses as the stronger US dollar inflated foreign debt obligations. During the same period, the government repaid Rs 231.92 billion in principal, pushing the net debt increase to Rs 300.99 billion.
As of mid-May, domestic debt stood at Rs 13.81 trillion and external debt at Rs 15.93 trillion. At the end of the last fiscal year, total public debt was Rs 26.74 trillion, meaning the country has added nearly Rs 3 trillion in less than a year. A familiar ritual: borrow more, repay some, borrow again, pretend this is strategy.
Public debt now equals 45.08 percent of Nepal’s GDP, down from 48.04 percent in mid-April. The drop does not reflect reduced borrowing but a revised GDP estimate by the National Statistics Office, which raised the economy’s size from around Rs 61 trillion to Rs 66 trillion. Change the denominator, calm the panic. Classic accounting therapy.
The government had targeted raising Rs 595.66 billion in public loans this year and has achieved 61.3 percent of that goal by mid-May.
Debt servicing is becoming a major strain. In just 10 months, the government spent Rs 292.52 billion on principal and interest payments alone. Of this, Rs 60.59 billion went to interest.
Finance Ministry data show public debt has nearly doubled in seven years, from Rs 14.33 trillion in 2019/20 to almost Rs 30 trillion now. Experts warn Nepal is slipping into a debt trap, where old loans are repaid by taking new ones. Humans call this “management” when governments do it.
People’s News Monitoring Service
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