The Nepali central bank Thursday reported a sound growth in foreign currency reserve during the first four months of the current fiscal year (July 16, 2005 to July 15, 2006).

"Gross foreign currency holding of the banking system went up 7 percent during mid-July to mid-November 2005," said the latest report of Nepal Rastra Bank (NRB).

According to the report, foreign exchange reserve of the country during the period rose to 139.2 billion Nepali rupees (1. 98 billion US dollars). The reserve was recorded at 129.89 billion Nepali rupees (1.85 billion US dollars) during the same period of last fiscal year.

The rise in foreign currency reserve was mainly attributed to the increase in inflow of workers' remittance recorded during the period.

Inflow of workers' transfer increased significantly by 17.9 percent during the first three months of 2005/06, which helped foreign currency reserve to rise, the NRB report noted.

Nepal received a total of 18.48 billion Nepali rupees (264 million US dollars) worth of workers' remittances during the first quarter of the current fiscal year, the NRB report added.

Source: Xinhua