The revised Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) policy will now allow foreign investors to take dividends or profits in convertible currencies. Earlier policy restricted conversion of profits resulting the country’s first-ever FDI company, G4S, to pull out.
While local banks, economists and the opposition believe there is excess money lying idle in the financial system, the government thinks otherwise.
Bhutan’s consumer inflation continued to drop, reaching an all time low of 6.3 percent in December, last year. In November, inflation recorded was 6.6 percent.
The total amount of non-performing loans or bad loans in the commercial banks has increased from Nu 3B in 2010 to Nu 7.6B last year. In other words 12 percent of total credit dished out by the financial sector has defaulted.
Bhutan’s consumer inflation fell to 6.6 percent in November last year, the lowest recorded so far in 2014. The decrease in the rate of inflation was driven mainly by a reduction in the price of fossil fuel.
The decrease in global fuel prices is pushing down the prices of goods and services in the local economy too. However, the decrease is not being felt, as much as, it is in the international market.
The movement of people into Samtse has been restricted, following the recent unrest in Chamurchi, an Indian border town near Samtse. This has led to an adverse impact on the orange exporters. They have not been able to bring in workers for their businesses.
The price of potatoes has almost doubled this time, much to the relief of farmers in the East. Last year, a kilogram of potato used to cost Nu.17-20 a kilogram. A kilogram of potato now fetches about Nu.35.
Whenever there is outbreak of poultry related diseases within the country, poultry farmers take an advantage of the situation and increase the price of poultry products especially egg.
The inflation hit the highest in the country in July, this year, states the latest Consumer Price Index. The overall inflation in that particular month was 2.17 percent, which was higher than in June. It stood at 0.61 percent in June.
