DPA
Kathmandu
The Nepal government stated yesterday that the prolonged strikes in the country’s south as well as the embargo imposed by India have caused gross domestic product to slow to 2% from a previously projected 6%.
Finance Minister Bishnu Prasad Paudel in a televised address on the state-run Nepal Television also said that as a result 700,000 of Nepal’s 30mn people have been pushed below the
poverty line.
Nepal has been hit hard by violent anti-constitution strikes in the country’s south since August, during which at least 50 people have died. The strike comes when the country was already reeling from the aftermath of devastating earthquakes in April-May that killed 18,000 people.
Earlier Tuesday, the United Nations expressed concern over violence in the anti-constitution protests in Nepal and demanded that recent deaths be
investigated.
Violent demonstrations continued despite a curfew on Tuesday in parts of the Terai region on the border with India.
Uprisings by the Madhesi and India’s decision to effectively close the border have crippled the country, as most of import-dependent Nepal’s trade comes from its southern neighbour.
