Increased revenue collection, foreign aid, exports and timely budget and approval of programmes and policies played vital role on bringing positive impact on the economy and its growth rate, according to the Ministry of Finance.

During the programme organised to review the programmes and policy and the progress of large scale projects mentioned in the budget presented by Ministry of Finance, it was informed that the national economy was making positive progress.

Secretaries of the ministries concerned have reported on physical and financial progress on the programmes included in the budget. They said that the capital expenditure is making a sound progress due to timely budget and approval of the programmes and policies.

Speaking at the programme, Finance Minister Shanker Prasad Koirala said that the overall economy of the country was positive adding that the government was committed towards creating a situation wherein there would not be shortage of resources to implement the programmes and polices.

Minister Koirala further said that Nepal received over Rs. 50 billion in foreign aid during the first five months of this fiscal year. The revenue collection was also up as compared to last year, he added.

Koirala said that measures should be taken so that the programmes mentioned in the budget would not face shortage of funds. “Do not ask for budget amending the programmes; the government will not allocate budget to such programmes”, he added.

“I am looking forward to handing over a vibrant and well-functioning economy to the new government,” he said.

Finance Minister Koirala had presented the budget for Fiscal Year 2013/14 on July 14, 2013.

Advisor at the Ministry, Dr. Chiranjivi Nepal, said that the economy is headed towards positive course which is positive in creating employment and increased economic growth rate.

Also, he called for increasing capital expenditure to achieve 5.5 per cent economic growth rate and added that development would be expedited in the country if capital expenditure is increased.

Similarly, Finance Secretary Shantaraj Subedi underlined the need to take the economic proposal in the Cabinet only after taking permission from the Finance Ministry. He also requested the Finance Ministry to increase the capital expenditure.

Joint-Secretary at the Ministry, Ram Sharan Pudasaini, informed that budget formulation process for the coming fiscal year has already been initiated.

Secretary at the Home Ministry, Janardan Nepal, said that his Ministry has started homework to address the technical problems seen in managing the National Identity Cards.

Secretary at Ministry of Physical Infrastructure, Tulasi Sitaula, said that construction works have been carried out in speedy manner to link the district headquarters of Humla and Dolpa districts with road network within the next fiscal year.

The company said on Wednesday net profit rose by 13 percent to 8.37 billion rupees in the September quarter, as a weaker rupee boosted export earnings. The mean estimate of 11 analysts was 8.

The BSE Sensex was up 0.2 percent in pre-open trading. Markets were closed on Wednesday for a holiday.

KATHMANDU: Gold prices went up in Nepal on Tuesday following the global trend. The increase comes as the nation prepares for the upcoming national festivals.

Nepal Gold and Silver Dealers’ Association (NEGOSIDA) announced that the prices were increased by Rs 1,000 per tola (11.664 grams) in the domestic market.

With the revised pricing,  one tola of hallmark gold will now cost Rs 59,900 per tola today. Similarly price of silver also increased by Rs 15 and reached Rs 1,049 per tola today.

Taking it into consideration the increasing demand for the yellow metal, Nepal Rastra Bank is mulling to increase the gold import quota to 20 kilogram per day.

Benchmark oil for October delivery was up 50 cents to $106.92 a barrel at midday Bangkok time in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

The contract gained $1.39, or 1.4 percent, to close at $106.42 on Friday. Oil rose after the U.S. government said that Americans cut back sharply in July on purchases of new homes, a sign that higher mortgage rates may weigh on the housing recovery.

Traders apparently saw the weak data as an indication that the Fed may need to wait before slowing down its bond-buying program. A slower phase-out of the Federal Reserve’s monetary stimulus could also keep the dollar weaker, making commodities that are traded in dollars more appealing to investors with other currencies.

However, analysts at Mizuho Bank Ltd. in Singapore said in a commentary said that while the data on new home sales was worrisome, it was “not a game-changer in its own right” and that data on existing home sales and evidence of a trend would probably carry more weight.

Brent crude, which sets prices for imported oil used by many U.S. refineries, gained 21 cents to $111.25 a barrel on the ICE Futures exchange in London.

In other energy futures trading on Nymex:

— Heating oil added 0.8 cent to $3.107 per gallon.

— Natural gas added 4 cents to $3.525 per 1,000 cubic feet.

— Wholesale gasoline was steady at $2.871 per gallon.

TOKYO: The dollar slipped against the euro and yen Wednesday, while India’s rupee rebounded from a record low as traders await the release of minutes from the US Federal Reserve’s July meeting.

Trade was cautious ahead of the release of the minutes, with analysts expecting the Fed to soon announce the end of its year-long stimulus, which has helped fuel a global equity and forex rally.

In early Asian trade the greenback bought 97.25 yen, against 97.32 yen in New York on Tuesday, while the euro sat at $1.3423, against $1.3420.

The European unit broke $1.34 in New York for the first time since January after US Treasury yields fell to 2.81 percent from a two-year high of 2.88 percent reached Monday, as bonds appeared oversold after sinking for more than three months.

The single currency was also trading at 130.67 yen, from 130.60 yen.

Investors will be poring over the Fed minutes to find out “what kind of discussion took place over (the) possibility of reducing” its bond-buying known as quantitative easing (QE), Shinichiro Kadota, currency analyst at Barclays Capital, said in a statement.

But while expectations are high that QE is coming to an end India’s rupee, Asia’s worst-performing major currency this year, edged up to 63.37 against the dollar on Wednesday after falling to a record low 64.1 on Tuesday.

However, the Indonesian rupiah continued to fall, trading at 10,685 to the dollar on Wednesday, from 10,495 rupiah Tuesday, while the Thai baht was at 31.72 from 31.69.

Expectations the Fed will wind down QE has seen foreign investors repatriate the vast sums of cash that poured into emerging economies when the scheme was unveiled in September 2012, hammering currencies and equities.

“Ahluwalia has more than 32 years of banking experience at Punjab National Bank India and has hold the post of deputy general manager in parent organization,” the statement further reads.

Ahluwalia has key expertise in credit and recovery. “Backed by his vast experience and dynamic leadership, Everest Bank is expected to achieve new heights,” added the statement.

England: Finance leaders from the Group of Seven leading industrial economies say Japan’s stimulus policies are directed at boosting its economy out of a two-decade period of stagnation, not an attempt to drive down its currency to make Japan’s exports more competitive.

At the conclusion of a two-day meeting of leading financial representatives from the G-7 countries — the U.S., Germany, France, Italy, Japan, Canada and the U.K. — host British Treasury chief George Osborne said there was a formal acknowledgement that each member needed to secure their own countries’ growth by balancing austerity measures with growth-enhancing policies. The officials also agreed on the importance of finding measures to deal with failing banks and working collectively to stop companies and individuals from dodging their tax bills.

The global recovery from recession over the past few years has been patchy. While the U.S. economy, the world’s largest, appears to be gaining traction, many European countries are in recession as they try to get a grip on their public finances through deep spending cuts and tax increases.

“The will is still there to reduce the deficits but there is certainly a change of tone,” said Pierre Moscovici, France’s finance minister at the conclusion of the two-day summit at a country house around 50 miles (80 kilometers) northwest of London.

Japan, the world’s number 3 economy has been in focus in recent months. The new government of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has promised aggressive steps to restart the country’s postwar boom, which effectively ground to a halt in the early 1990s. As part of that effort, the Bank of Japan plans to double the amount of cash circulating in the Japanese economy and held as bank reserves.

One of the offshoots of the policies has been a dramatic fall in the value of the yen. On Thursday, the dollar rose above 100 yen for the first time in over four years. The yen has weakened by more than 20 percent against the dollar since October, when it was trading at around 78 yen.

As well as potentially boosting economic growth by making its exports more competitive, the flipside of a lower yen is that it can also stoke inflation by increasing the price of imports. For a country that’s seen prices fall for much of the past 15 years, that’s important.

The rapid slide in the value of the yen has sparked fears of a “currency war” — where countries use their exchange rates as an economic weapon. If other countries respond to the falling yen by debasing their currencies, Japan will be back at square one and the world economy could suffer. Sharp fluctuations in the value of currencies can hurt business confidence and investment.

So far, the argument presented by Japanese officials that it has been targeting monetary stimulus and not its exchange rate has been accepted by Japan’s G-7 partners.

Osborne, who hosted the two days of informal discussions, said the G-7 countries agreed to make sure that “policies are oriented towards domestic objectives.”

In a rare development, the G-7 didn’t actually issue a communique at the conclusion of its deliberations. However, Osborne said the previous communique “was a successful statement and one that has been held to” — a clear reference to Japan.

In February, when markets were particularly roiled by developments in Japan, the G-7 said their respective fiscal and monetary policies were oriented toward meeting domestic requirements and that exchange rates were not a target of policy.

A senior U.S. Treasury official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said there was a good discussion about what’s going on in Japan and that Japanese officials went into some detail about how the new policy was helping to boost domestic demand.

The official reaffirmed the importance that Japan continues to meet previous commitments, a point made a day earlier by Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew who said he was monitoring developments.

Analysts said it’s difficult for the G-7 to make any concerns over Japan public because other countries, such as the U.S. and Britain, have been accused of debasing their respective currencies over the past few years through their monetary stimulus programs.

“It’s a bit like the pot calling the kettle black,” said Simon Derrick, senior currency strategist at BNY Mellon.

Spain’s unemployment rate soared to a new record of 27.2% of the workforce in the first quarter of 2013, according to official figures.

The total number of unemployed people in Spain has now passed the six million figure, although the rate of the increase has slowed.

The figures underline Spain’s struggle to emerge from an economic crisis which began five years ago.

A big demonstration in Madrid is being planned against the austerity measures.

On Friday, Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy will unveil fiscal and policy measures aimed at halting recession in the eurozone’s fourth-largest economy.

“These figures are worse than expected and highlight the serious situation of the Spanish economy as well as the shocking decoupling between the real and the financial economy,” said Jose Luis Martinez, strategist at Citi.

KATHMANDU: The gold price has increased by Rs 500 per tola in the domestic market today.  The gold price increased by Rs 200 per tola to Rs 52,000. The yellow precious metal was traded at Rs 51,500 yesterday. according to the Nepal Gold and Silver Dealers’ Association. The association claimed that price increase in the international market is the main cause to the recent price hike in the gold.

KATHMANDU: Nepal’s one of the most successful entrepreneurs Binod Chaudhary has made in Forbes Magazine as the single billionaire  in Nepal. Nepal’s richest businessman Chaudhary, 57, owns 1 billion US dollars.

“From supplying goods to the erstwhile royal family and opening the country’s first department store, the Chaudhary Group’s interests today include banking, foods, cement, real estate, hotels, power and electronics,” said the magazine.

Binod Chaudhary is Nepal’s first billionaire but built most of his fortune overseas, the Forbes said in its portal.

“His Cinnovation/Chaudhary Group, owns among much else, popular instant noodle brand Wai Wai, a controlling stake in Nepal’s Nabil Bank and a string of luxury hotels with India’s Taj hotel chain,”  the Forbes further states.

His father opened country’s first department store. Binod skipped college to join the family trade at age 18. Singapore arm Cinnovation and other overseas interests are managed by sons Rahul and Varun, both non-residents. Eldest son Nirvana, overseas domestic businesses. A fitness fanatic, Chaudhary goes trekking in the Himalayas every year.