Economy to grow by 3.47 per cent

Economy is projected to grow by 3.47 per cent from its preliminary projection.
Poor performance of non-agriculture sector has pulled the economic growth below four per cent against the government projection of 4.5 per cent and Three Year Interim Plan's projection of 5.5 per cent, said the Central Statistics Bureau (CBS) releasing the national accounts report here today.
The non-agriculture sector that witnessed a gowth of 5.39 per cent in the last fiscal year is ecpected to grow by only 3.09 per cent this fiscal year -- compared to last fiscal year -- dragging the overall gross domestic production (GDP) below four per cent, said director at the National Accounts Division of CBS Suman Raj Aryal. "Boosted by the good crops yield, the agriculture sector is however, projected to grow by 4.11 per cent against last fiscal year's growth of 1.27 per cent."
Nepal's GDP is lowest among all South Asian countries against 12 per cent of Bhutan, six per cent of Bangladesh, nine per cent of India and even Southern neighbour China's 10 per cent, according to CBS.
Electricity, gas and water, and wholesale and retail trade are projected to post negative growth of 4.02 per cent and 0.23 per cent, respectively, whereas community, social and personal services; education; public administration and defence; real estate, renting and business activities; construction; and mining and quarrying are expected to register lower growth compared to the last fiscal year.
Similarly, agriculture and forestry; fishing; transport, storage and communication; financial intermediation; and health and social work sectors are the sectors that are expected to record more growth compared to last fiscal year.
The policy dilemma due to political intability, regular power outage, slowdown in construction and real estate sector due to regulatory barriers, and no new investments dragged the overall economic performnace resulting in the below four per cent growth.
Meanwhile, the Bureau has also revised the growth rate of last fiscal year 2009-10 to 3.97 per cent from its earlier projection of 3.53 per cent.
In the last one decade, the country had witnessed a growth of an average of a little over three per cent, except that in the fiscal year 2007-08, it had registered 5.80 per cent growth.

Per capita GDP at $642
KATHMANDU: The report also projected that the country could register $642 per capita GDP and $645 per capital gross national income (GNI). Per capita GDP -- that is income per person -- is the numerical quotient of income divided by population, in monetary terms that is a measure of all sources of income in an economic aggregate of a country but does not measure income distribution or wealth, whereas per capita GNI is the dollar value of a country’s final income in a year -- divided by its population -- that reflects the average income of a country’s citizens. But the classification by income does not necessarily reflect the development status of a country. A country with a biased income distribution could have a relatively high per-capita GNI while the majority of its citizens have a relatively low level of income, due to concentration of wealth in the hands of a small fraction of the population.

Growth
* Agriculture, Forestry and Fishing -- 4.11 per cent
* Non-agriculture -- 3.09 per cent
* Total GDP (at basic prices) -- 3.47 per cent