Dashain pushes market price up

The festive season pushed the market price up in mid-October as according to central bank data, the year-on-year inflation in the first quarter of the current fiscal year has increased to 8.4 per cent against eight per cent a month ago.

The higher prices of meat and fish, vegetable and restaurant and hotels bills, cereals, grains and their products, tobacco products and clothing and footwear, in the Dashain festival, from earlier two months, propelled the inflation up. "During the same month in the last fiscal year, the inflation stood at 10.5 per cent," the central bank added.

The government has, though, targeted to contain inflation at eight per cent in the current fiscal year, it could not be possible also due to Constituent Assembly (CA) elections – in November – when not only the government spent some Rs 16 billion, the parties have also spent recklessly to win the votes, flooding the market with liquidity that will eventually push the inflation higher up.