Kathmandu. The World Bank has increased the interest rate on loans given to Nepal with effect from July this year. So far, Nepal has been charging 0.75 percent interest rate on development assistance from the World Bank. The interest rate has been increased to 1.5 percent.

“The World Bank has increased the interest rate since July this year. We used to take it within 40 years. Dhaniram Sharma, chief of the Foreign Assistance Coordination Division, said, “Now the maturity period has also increased from 24 to 30 years. Earlier, there were two types of such periods of 40 and 38 years. Now it has been built in 30 years. ’

Sharma said that the interest rate on loans has increased naturally as Nepal has been upgraded from the list of poor countries. The World Bank and the Asian Development Bank (ADB) have recently come out with their respective strategies, he said, adding that development assistance would be carried forward in a way that is consistent with those strategies.

He said, “The World Bank has brought the country partner as Fembark and THE ADB has brought the country partner strategy. These two documents were also made in collaboration with us. Development assistance will proceed on the basis of what has been prioritized in that document. They contribute 80 percent of Nepal’s development assistance. ’

Speaking at a programme organised by the Association of Economic Journalists of Nepal (NAFIJ) here on Monday, he said the project readiness filter has been issued to make all development assistance available by Nepal. He believes that the filter has been brought only by focusing on the quality and yield of the project.