Weekly Summary
Across the week, Nepal’s governance agenda was driven by Nepali Congress convention and leadership moves, including voting under the 15th General Convention and the leadership election of Gagan Kumar Thapa, alongside expanding accountability mechanisms through parliamentary review of foreign nominees and ambassador hearings. Legal and corruption-focused developments included sentencing of Vikal Paudel over illegally acquiring about NPR 42 crore, arrest of Dikesh Yadav for allegedly taking a 100,000 rupees bribe, and Supreme Court rulings affecting custody in the Pokhara airport corruption matter involving Sanjiv Gautam plus banking access restrictions under Integrated Directive, 2082. Disaster response and recovery remained a central thread, with flood and landslide impacts in multiple districts, President Ram Chandra Paudel’s disaster ordinance enabling missing-persons status after 45 days, and emergency safety warnings during the Budhigandaki floods.
Forex remained relatively stable over the week: USD/NPR moved within 154.38-155.16 (0.43% net change), starting at NPR 154.41 on Oct 04 and ending at NPR 155.08 on Oct 11; other major pairs traded in narrow ranges (CAD 108.33-108.99, AUD 107.14-108.25, GBP 203.98-205.35, JPY 9.77-9.80). international gold closed near NPR 243,956 per tola; international silver closed near NPR 3,539.
