Nepal’s foreign trade witnessed a slight improvement in the first four months of the current fiscal year.

Both exports and imports surged by 4.16 and 0.17 percent in the period, respectively, resulting in the 0.53 percent rise in the total foreign trade, latest Department of Customs data show.

While the total imports totalled Rs 513.38 billion, the country exported goods worth Rs 52.67 billion from mid-July to mid-November this year. The figures in the same period last year were Rs 512.5 billion and Rs 50.56 billion, respectively. 

The increase in exports resulted in a slight reduction in the country’s trade deficit, which stood at Rs 460.71 billion in four months this year – 0.26 percent less than that in the same period last year.

Petroleum products continue to dominate the imports, followed by ferrous products obtained by direct reduction of iron ore, smartphones, flat and hot-rolled iron and steel, crude vegetable oil, urea and electric vehicles, among others. The import bill of diesel, petrol and Liquified Petroleum Gas (LPG) stood at Rs 29.04 billion, Rs 21.56 billion and Rs 18.85 billion, respectively.

Similarly, the country’s top exports were carpets and other floor covering of wool or fine animal hair, soybean oil, black tea and big cardamom. Carpets’s export worth Rs 3.6 billion were exported. 

While the majority of the import, 32.59 percent, was through the Birgunj customs, most of the export, 23.45 percent, was through the Tribhuvan International Airport.

The data show that the foreign trade improved between mid-October and mid-November as it had declined in the first quarter of the fiscal year. Floods, landslides, and the ongoing economic downturn had significantly affected foreign trade. Imports and exports had declined by 4.17 percent and 6.11 percent between mid-July and mid-October.