KATHMANDU, July 30 (Xinhua) — Nepal’s central bank has said it has received far better yield from its investments made in Chinese currency in the Chinese government securities and short-term deposits compared to its investments in most of other currencies.
It has been just three years that Nepal Rastra Bank (NRB), central bank of the Himalayan country, started investing in Chinese government securities and short-term deposits in Yuan as a part of its plan to divest its investment portfolios.
Bhisma Raj Dhungana, chief of foreign exchange management department at the NRB, told Xinhua that the yield from investments made in Yuan has been around three percent which is lower than the yields from the investments made in Indian currency but better than investments in U.S. dollar, Euro, Japanese Yen and Swish Frank among other currencies.
According to NRB, yield from the investments made in Indian currency is around six percent. But, U.S. dollar based investments have given the yield below one percent and investments made in Euro and Yen have given negative yields.
According to the Nepalese central bank, its investment in Yuan is around nine percent of its total foreign currency reserve. Its investments made in U.S. dollar is around 55 percent while investment made in Indian currency is around 25 percent while rest of the investments have been made in the other currencies.
As for first 11 months of last fiscal year 2015-16 that concluded in mid-July, Nepal’s total foreign currency reserve stands at 11.34 billion U.S. dollar.