Hiked labour rates no breather, curse rising food prices

Good news for farm workers and construction site labourers! Their wages increased by almost double over the last one year, and things would have been picture-perfect had not food prices also gone up commensurately.
"The wages of agricultural, industrial and construction site labourers increased by 19.5, 2.7 per cent and 8.9 per cent, respectively, in the first two months of this fiscal year. Last year, these wage rates had increased by 9.1 per cent, 19.4 per cent and 13.2 per cent, respectively," said Nepal Rastra Bank's (NRB) first two months' report. However, at the same time the year-on-year (y-o-y) consumer inflation also rose to 13.5 per cent whereas the salary and wage rate index rose by only 9.2 per cent.
"The y-o-y consumer inflation rose to 13.5 per cent by the end of mid-September from seven per cent in the same period last fiscal year. Inflation was driven by the significant rise in food and beverage (14.2 per cent) as well as non-food and service (12.8 per cent) groups in the review period," said the central bank's report published by its Research Department.
The rise in prices of food and beverages and non-food and service groups was 10.9 per cent and 2.8 per cent, respectively, a year ago. "In the review period, the y-o-y core inflation rose to 12.1 per cent from 5.4 per cent a year ago," said the report.
The overall y-o-y salary and wage rate index rose by 9.2 per cent by the end of mid-September compared to a rise of 12.5 per cent a year ago, said the report. Of the salary and wage rate indices, the salary index remained unchanged in the review period compared to a rise of 10.9 per cent in the corresponding period of the previous year.
"The y-o-y wage rate index increased by 12.3 per cent in the review period compared to an increase of 13.1 per cent in the same period of the previous year," said the central bank.

Anti-money laundering pact
KATHMANDU: The central banks of Nepal and Bangladesh signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) to check money laundering. Dharma Raj Sapkota, department head at the Financial Information Department of Nepal Rastra Bank and Md Abul Quasim, department head at the Financial Investigation Department of the Bangladesh Bank signed the MoU on October 21 on behalf of their respective countries. According to NRB, the mutual agreement will help check money laundering. "It will also help in trade of information related to illegal financial transactions and investments," said a release.