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Official development assistance (ODA) disbursements expanded by 15.5 percent to reach $1.6bn in the fiscal year 2024/25, according to the Development Cooperation Report 2024/25 unveiled by the Ministry of Finance earlier this week. Such disbursements stood at $1.39bn in the previous fiscal year.

According to the report, disbursement in 2024/25 is also significantly higher than the ten-year average, indicating a normalization of development finance flows following recent fluctuations. During the review period, the government signed 33 ODA agreements with 12 development partners, amounting to a total commitment of $1.98bn. Of this, debt financing accounted for $1.57bn, or 79.1 percent, while grants made up the remaining 20.9 percent equivalent to $413.1m.

Loans continued to be the primary mode of assistance in 2024/25, comprising 66.9 percent of total disbursements at $1.07bn. Grant disbursements stood at $344.4m, representing 21.4 percent, while technical assistance contributed $187.2m, or 11.6 percent of the total.

Among multilateral development partners, the World Bank emerged as the largest contributor, disbursing $541m during the fiscal year. The Asian Development Bank was next with $443.2m. Other key multilateral contributors included the International Monetary Fund, which disbursed $41.8m, the European Union with $37.7m, and the Green Climate Fund contributing $15.8m. The United Nations system collectively mobilized $64.5m during the period.

Among bilateral partners, India topped the list with disbursements totaling $107.8m. The United Kingdom was next with disbursements of $84.2m, followed by the USAID at $67.1m, Japan with $58.3m, Switzerland at $30.1m, and Norway contributing $26.6m. Overall, multilateral partners accounted for the bulk of ODA disbursements, contributing $1.09bn, or 68.1 percent. Bilateral partners made up 27.9 percent percent with $448.4m, while the UN system contributed the remaining four percent.

According to the report, on-budget disbursements rose sharply by 23.5 percent to $1.36bn. This indicates improved alignment with national priorities and systems. Similarly, on-treasury disbursements surged by 63.3 percent to $847.5m. In contrast, off-budget support declined by 15.1 percent to $242m, suggesting a gradual move toward greater transparency and government ownership of development spending.

Despite the increase in absolute disbursement, ODA’s share in the national budget declined to 14.5 percent in 2024/25, down from 15 percent in the previous fiscal year. It marked the lowest level in a decade, according to the report. Sector-wise, the transport sector received the largest share of ODA, with disbursements totaling $252.8m, or 15.7 percent of the total. Next were economic affairs at $204.5m (12.7 percent), agriculture, forestry, fishing and hunting at $188.5m (11.7 percent), education at $184m (11.5 percent), and public order and safety at $170.3m (10.6 percent).

The contribution from international non-governmental organizations (INGOs) also also increased during the review year. Although the number of reporting INGOs declined to 49, total disbursements increased to $90m, up from $63.1m in the previous fiscal year. The report underscores broader shifts in Nepal’s development finance landscape. While public development finance, including government revenue and foreign aid, has nearly doubled over the past decade—from $4.8bn in 2015 to around $9.1bn in 2024—private financial flows have grown even more rapidly.

The gold is being traded at Rs 294, 000 per tola in the domestic market on Friday. 

According to the Federation of Nepal Gold and Silver Dealers’ Association, the silver is being traded at Rs 4, 830 per tola today.

Nepali migrant workers have sent a total of 1449.65 billion in remittances during the first eight months of the current fiscal year 2082/83 (mid-July 2025 to mid-March 2026). 

According to the central bank data, remittance inflow has surged by 37.7 percent during the reporting period. The growth was 9.5 percent in the same period last year. 

Remittance inflow was recorded at Rs 188.64 billion during last month (February 13 to March 14). In the same month of the previous year, the inflow was Rs 151.19 billion. 

The Nepal Rastra Bank's report stated that during the period, net secondary income (net transfers) increased to Rs 1591.66 billion, up from Rs 1149.30 billion in the previous year. 

During the review period, the number of Nepali obtaining a final labour permit (institutional and individual–new) for foreign employment was 273,536, and the number of those obtaining re-permit was 251,985.

 In the same period last year, these numbers were 317,068 and 217,403 respectively. 

The appointment of Swarnim Wagle as Nepal’s Finance Minister represents a rare convergence of intellectual rigor and executive authority. For decades, Nepal has struggled to reconcile reformist aspirations with the inertia of governance. With Wagle at the helm, the country stands at a curious juncture: the possibility of translating classy economic theory into disciplined statecraft. Wagle’s transition from academic strategist and one of the architects of the Rastriya Swatantra Party’s (RSP) electoral success to steward of the national treasury has generated profound expectations. The public anticipates not just rhetoric but a decisive break from stagnation, a moment when inclusive microeconomic development can finally be aligned with sustained macroeconomic growth. 

With the backing of a near two-thirds majority, Wagle faces the formidable challenge of converting political momentum into frameworks for industrialization, job creation, reliable connectivity development and technological advancement. If pursued with rigor, this era could propel Nepal beyond the Least Developed Country category, elevate per capita income toward $3,000, expand GDP to $100bn, and generate over a million jobs with the RSP 1.0 era. The stakes are immense, and the opportunity historic.

The blossoming tenure of Wagle reflects a commendable reformist zeal, signaled by the swift repeal of obsolete legislations. However, for this momentum to transcend mere symbolism, it must be anchored in rigorous, data-driven diagnostics. Rushing to dismantle or overhaul administrative arms, such as revenue research agencies, without a prior longitudinal evaluation of their functional efficacy risks replicating the institutional failures of previous times. Authentic economic statecraft demands that Nepal move beyond the anecdotal, narrative-heavy advisory reports that have historically dominated the policy landscape. Instead, Wagle must prioritize a comprehensive assessment of three decades of liberal economic policy and a decade of federalism to provide a legitimate evidentiary foundation for second-generation reforms.

This systemic modernization must extend to the ministry’s allied agencies including Customs, the Internal Revenue Department, SEBON, Auditor General, Financial Comptroller and the Nepal Rastra Bank, etc., whose rigid, transactional modalities have devolved into bureaucratic bottlenecks, operation barriers and popularized as rent-seeking hubs. Such institutional stagnation has precipitated a stark deindustrialization; as the service sector expands to 62 percent, the industrial and agricultural sectors continue to contract, with industrial capacity languishing at 44.5 percent. This structural misalignment is mirrored in a consumption-heavy budgetary framework where recurrent expenditures consistently consume nearly two-thirds of national resources, leaving a disproportionately small fraction for capital formation.

The persistent fiscal crisis is further exacerbated by extreme expenditure seasonality, where 35 percent of the annual budget is often exhausted in the final month, yielding substandard infrastructure and inflated logistical overheads. In the 2024/25 period, federal outlays of Rs 1.523trn significantly outpaced an aggregate revenue of Rs 1.178trn, with capital investment restricted to a meager 14.6 percent. Breaking this cycle of stagnation requires a major overhaul of public revenue governance and a strategic pivot toward merit-based resource allocation. By enhancing banking efficiency and reducing lending costs for micro-enterprises, the government can finally nurture a competitive domestic industrial base, transitioning the nation from an import-dependent economy to one characterized by sustainable, internally driven growth.

Harnessing endowments, leveraging technology

Second-generation reforms must rest on the principle that sustainable GDP growth is inseparable from the quality of human capital. Investments in education, healthcare, connectivity, domestic tourism, agriculture, and public security are essential to broadening the middle class while institutionalizing a safety net for the disenfranchised. Externally, mobilizing diaspora capital through streamlined conduits and project-specific banks tailored for Non-Resident Nepali investment will be critical. Restoring private-sector confidence after recent political unrest requires legislative protections and treasury policies that prioritize investment security. Yet the state must avoid pampering private actors into dependency on subsidies and incentives. 

By fast-tracking national pride projects such as the Budhigandaki Hydropower, roads network and the Naumure Multipurpose Project of Dang, using modern resource mapping and input-output analysis, Wagle can move beyond the uninspired methodologies of the past. Wagle’s success will depend on remaining focused on high-value targets that can finally deliver Nepal’s long-awaited developmental horizon.

Second Generation Economic Reform policy must be rooted in Nepal’s unique endowments, strategically aligning comparative advantages with the linking to the power of knowledge and technology. Integrated towns/cities that connect people and places, infrastructure that fosters dense networks of trade, commerce, and identification of high-impact sectors capable of immediate import substitution are essential. Central to this shift is an energy policy that pivots from exporting raw electricity to high-value domestic end use energy. By leveraging river basins for niche agriculture, tourism and prioritizing energy-intensive industries such as data centers, crypto-mining, manufacturing and processing hubs, Nepal can transition toward a climate-resilient economy. This transformation, however, depends entirely on efficient, transparent, and predictable governance within the government. 

Delivering on the RSP’s electoral manifesto requires ruthless commitment to overhauling public service delivery, ensuring safety nets and public goods and services are reliable. The public expects the RSP to remain untainted by corruption, and this demands rigorous internal orientation, continuous knowledge development, and a strategic distance from excessive foreign entanglement. Leaders must remain embedded within their constituencies, maintaining transparent communication with the people who granted them their mandate.

Test of execution

Ultimately, the success of Minister Wagle will not be measured by rhetoric but by the tangible expansion of the middle class and the clinical execution of national mega-projects. As a leading development economist, he must act as a hunter of structural economic reform rather than a passenger in a stalled bureaucratic carriage. To rely on narrative driven recommendations of the past (Report from the High Level Economic Advisory Committee) would be to squander this historic moment. The path to a $3,000 per capita income and a $100bn GDP requires ruthless commitment to data-driven policy, institutional integrity, effective governance and a social contract that finally delivers prosperity for every Nepali citizen. Nepal has waited decades for this alignment of intellectual vision and political authority. 

The question now is whether Wagle can seize the moment, discipline the machinery of governance, and deliver the impactful change that the present demands. If Minister Wagle succeeds, this will not simply be a chapter in Nepal’s economic story; it will be the beginning of a new era.