Kathmandu. In the half-year review period of the current fiscal year 2082÷83, Nepal has incurred a loss of Rs 797.48 billion while foreign trade worth Rs 1081.4 billion.

As per the foreign trade statistics released by the Department of Customs today, the total foreign trade has increased by 17.36 per cent and trade deficit by 10.15 per cent this year compared to the corresponding period of the last fiscal year.

According to the Department, goods worth Rs 939.02 billion were imported till mid-January while only Rs 142.18 billion was exported. The share of import in the total foreign trade is 86.86 per cent and that of export is 13.14 per cent.

In the last six months, India has imported goods worth Rs 532.45 billion and exported goods worth Rs 115.74 billion. During the period, the trade deficit with India stood at Rs 416.71 billion.

The trade deficit with another neighboring country China in the last six months stood at Rs 195.36 billion. According to the Department, goods worth Rs 196.94 billion were imported from China while only Rs 640.9 million was exported.

Nepal’s trade deficit is high in countries like Argentina, the United Arab Emirates, Indonesia and Thailand. Similarly, Denmark is at the top of the country in terms of trade profit. In the last six months, Nepal imported goods worth Rs 91.5 crore and exported goods worth Rs 510.2 million from Denmark. Nepal has profit with countries like Romania, Sweden, Iraq and Norway.

The import of petroleum products is the highest during this period. Imports of diesel worth Rs 58.27 billion, petrol worth Rs 33.07 billion and cooking gas worth Rs 27.04 billion have been imported in the first six months of the current fiscal year.

Likewise, imports of soybean oil worth Rs 57.43 billion and iron products worth Rs 14.04 billion were imported in the review period. The customs revenue collected from import of goods during the period stood at Rs 238.53 billion.

Similarly, soybean oil worth Rs 56.08 billion was exported to the country, followed by cardamom worth Rs 7.19 billion, sunflower oil worth Rs 4.78 billion and carpet worth Rs 3.11 billion.