Jan. 21: Finance Minister Dr. Prakash Sharan Mahat has said that Nepal's economy is gradually returning to normalcy. Addressing the Govinda Biyogi Journalism Award and senior journalist honouring ceremony established by the Govinda Biyogi Memorial Trust in Nuwakot, Finance Minister Dr. Mahat said that there has been an improvement in real estate business, the NEPSE index has risen and other indicators of the economy have also improved.
“The economy is slowly returning to normal. The land business has been active, the NEPSE index has risen. After many years, a high number of tourists have entered the country. A lot of capital from outside has flowed into the system,” he said.
According to a press statement from his secretariat, Minister Mahat said that the confidence of the businessmen and investors and the general public has also been boosted towards the country's economy with the improvement of economic indicators. He said, "Economic growth will increase this year compared to last year. New areas of investment should be identified.”
Stating that the confusion in the economy is coming to an end, he said that the media should actively disseminate positive comments which boost the confidence among the people.
Minister Dr. Mahat said, "When I took over the responsibility of the Ministry of Finance, there were many problems. There were many problems in the budget management as well. The challenge was to bring it to the right track. It was difficult to clear that situation in one stroke. But now, work is being carried out gradually to address the problems seen in the economy.”
Stating that there were challenges in the economy as a whole due to external and internal reasons, he said that there was a huge debt flow before and during the COVID-19 pandemic, when there was no place to spend.
“Since there was no place to invest during COVID, a huge amount had been invested in share market and real estate,” he said, “so tight monetary policy introduced to stop this. Due to non-return of investment, liability increased and the interest rate has also increased. The borrowers who took the loan at that time are in trouble. This problem has now become the main topic of discussion.”
The Finance Minister made it clear that journalism is not in problem due to the country's economic situation. He said, the main reason why journalism is in trouble is social media.
He said, "The development of information technology has put the traditional media at risk. There is a smart phone in hand, anyone can post anything with that. Some false things are also being shared. The same thing starts to seem true to people. Common people stopped reading serious things. People stopped going deep, and started enjoying TikTok. The people who reached the depth and understood the truth and made opinions left the arena. This is extremely dangerous.”
He said that people should not depend only on social media, mainstream media should also be brought forward. He said that the state could not support any organisation due to the difficult economic situation of the country. He said that once the situation eases, the importance of organisations will be understood and support will be provided again.
