| NRB Serial
In its role as the steward of the country's macro economy, the NRB is facing a hard time ensuring that everything is alright. Read on and appreciate the missionary zeal of our central bank and central bankers:
Taking cue from the success of TV serials in the country and abroad to entertain and educate people, NRB too has been relentlessly continuing with its serial of issuing a report on the latest macroeconomic situation of Nepal. But the TV stations are so unsympathetic towards this pious effort that they are not providing it enough airtime. Therefore, it is now planning on its own TV station learning from the Royal Nepal Army which recently started its own FM radio station. With its own TV station NRB too will have its power enhanced to fight the psychological terrorism that some economists are waging against it by issuing vituperative analysis of the data released by the NRB almost exactly as the Maoist terrorists are making deadly assaults on the Army by snatching guns and bullets from them.
Since the serials on TV are frequent, weekly or even daily, NRB too wishes to make its serial weekly in the least, but the unsympathetic Central Bureau of Statistics is not providing the script as frequently as required.
The NRB is facing further problems in its hard work due to unsympathetic Indians, who are not controlling the inflation in their own country but transmitting it to Nepal. Though the government has been able to control the import of bird flu from India, it has not shown similar seriousness in controlling import of inflation from across the southern border. And look at the temerity of the Indians! Their inflation rate is still within 5 per cent, but they have made it 8 per cent while sending it over to Nepal! Since the responsibility of controlling the import of anything is entirely with the government and not with the central bank, the government must itself do something about it.
On its part, NRB is doing what it could to mop up the liquidity in the market so as to control inflation. But again this effort is being thwarted by two forces. One, the banks are not allowing the NRB mop up the liquidity that is with them. They quickly hide this liquidity when the NRB comes out with the mops of Treasury Bills and they spill it all around causing the inflation to go higher the moment the NRB mops are withdrawn. And the second nuisance is from the Nepalis who went abroad and are sending in much of liquidity. Now NRB is trying to find out methods to fix these two groups of crooks.
And the Nepal government is working on more than one way to spoil the little good work the NRB is doing. Though the present spate of inflation was started by the government’s action last year to increase the petroleum price and VAT rate and the NRB had already managed to control it by the last month, the government increased the petroleum price further starting a fresh spate of inflationary pressure. When all the concerned, from within and the outside the country, are thus hell bent on spoiling the good efforts of NRB, how can it help?
The only alternate is to opt for psychological warfare by having its own TV station and airing its own serials.
|
