The International Monetary Fund (IMF) is going to give the fifth installment under the Extended Credit Facility (ECF) provided to Nepal. According to this, now Nepal will get a payment equal to 40.8 million US dollars (about five billion 81 million rupees). The IMF executive meeting held last Friday decided to pay the fifth installment.

In 2022, Nepal took an ECF facility worth 395.9 million US dollars after the balance of payments became very weak due to the decrease in foreign exchange reserves. This is equal to 180 percent of the special drawing right quota that Nepal will get. The IMF provided this facility by paying in different installments over four years for budget financing. Now the fifth installment has been approved. 

IMF team came to Nepal last December for on-site study. Based on the report prepared by the same team, the executive meeting of the fund decided to pay the fifth installment under ECF. According to the IMF, Nepal's economy is facing challenges such as capital expenditure not increasing, revenue growth is slow, internal demand in the economy is not increasing. It is mentioned in the statement released by the IMF that Nepal has made significant progress despite the political instability and the obstacles caused by the floods and landslides that occurred last October.

The IMF has projected an economic growth of 4.2 percent in the financial year 2081/82. According to the IMF statement, the economic growth will be more than four percent in the current fiscal year despite the fact that the market demand did not increase as expected, and there was a large physical damage due to the flood. The IMF claims that the increase in capital expenditure, reconstruction after earthquakes and landslides, flexible and concessional monetary policy, increase in hydropower production will further support Nepal's economic growth this year.