Valley becomes expensive, Terai cheaper

The Kathmandu Valley and Hills became costlier, whereas Terai is comparatively cheaper as the price hike has recorded less growth in the plains, according to the central bank.
"Region-wise, price index of Kathmandu Valley rose by 12.1 per cent followed by 10.3 per cent in Hills against 9.5 per cent and 7.8 per cent respectively in the first three months, whereas price index increased by only 5.8 per cent in Terai against a growth of 8.3 per cent during the same period last year," Nepal Rastra Bank (NRB) said.
Similarly, the year-on-year inflation has started picking up. "The inflation measured by the consumer price index stood at 8.9 per cent in mid-October from 8.5 per cent in the same period a year ago," according to the report that attributes non-food sub group for the hike.
"The index of non-food group has gone up to almost double to 5.5 per cent from last year's same period's 2.8 per cent," the NRB report said.
Within the group of non-food and services, the price index of clothing and footwear increased by 11.6 per cent against an increase by 7.7 per cent, and indices of housing and utilities and transport increased by 10.4 per cent and 8.2 per cent against their decline by 3.8 per cent and 9.4 per cent last year.
Under the food sub groups also price of spices, cereals grains and their products, milk products and egg and restaurant and hotel sub group ha gone up.
"Price indices of spices sub-group increased by a whopping rate of 41.1 per cent compared to an increase of only 12.5 per cent in the same period last year, whereas the price indices of cereals grains and their products, and milk products and egg also increased respectively by 17.1 per cent and 14.9 per cent against their respective increase of 5.2 per cent and 8.3 per cent during the same period last year," the report said.
Against the government's projection of containing the price hike at seven per cent, the price hike is expected to continue to grow due to hike in the prices of petroleum productsrecently pushing the transportation costs up.