Affected by the sudden event, the price of major commodities has soared, the international spending of many raw material importing countries has increased significantly, coupled with the tightening monetary policy of the United States to raise interest rates, a large number of funds have flowed into the United States, and the foreign exchange reserves of these countries have become less and less.
On April 26, local time, Nepal officially announced that in order to prevent Nepal's foreign exchange reserves from being depleted, Nepal decided to stop the import of 10 types of commodities. All 10 categories are luxury goods such as diamonds, high-priced mobile phones and toys or non-necessities.
Because these prohibited imports are not a necessity of life, the impact on the daily lives of nepalese people should be small. The ban, which went into effect on April 26, will run until mid-July this year.
According to nepal's official data, Nepal's foreign exchange reserves have decreased by more than 16% in the last six months or so, and in mid-March 2022, Nepal's foreign exchange reserves were only about 9.75 billion US dollars. Nepal's central bank has said that if the economic situation continues to deteriorate, Nepal's foreign exchange reserves will be used up in less than 7 months.
Not only Nepal has such a problem, but even the economically developed South Korea and Japan have also been affected, and foreign exchange reserves have continued to decline.
The Bank of Korea said on April 5 that as of the end of March, South Korea's foreign exchange reserves were reduced by $3.96 billion from the previous month, which is already the fourth consecutive month of negative growth in South Korea's foreign exchange reserves.
Japan's foreign exchange reserves fell by nearly $28.5 billion from the previous month to $1,356.071 billion, or 2.1 percent, or the biggest drop in nearly 20 years, japan's official data showed. Moreover, Japanese media said that due to the impact of us interest rate hikes, the foreign exchange reserves of many Asian countries are decreasing.
The decline in foreign exchange reserves may lead to the continued depreciation of national currencies and a decline in risk tolerance. It is worth noting that the Asian financial crisis began with a sharp depreciation of the currency.
| Fu Jiati | Zeng Yi reviewed | Lee Ze-plutonium