Kathmandu: With the change of government, the schedule for making public the monetary policy set by the NRB has been postponed. If the Supreme Court had not ordered the restoration of the House of Representatives and the formation of a new government led by Sher Bahadur Deuba, the NRB could have made the monetary policy public by Monday.

NRB Governor Maha Prasad Adhikari has said that many expectations of the stakeholders could not be met this time. Experts suggest that the NRB should focus on financial and price stability as the challenge now. However, monetary policy has the responsibility to help achieve the various goals set by the fiscal policy, including economic growth and job creation. Therefore, the NRB is obliged to bring similar programs in the monetary policy for a new direction of economic recovery.

Earlier, the NRB had planned to make the monetary policy public internally within the first three weeks of July. Subordinate departments were instructed to work according to the same plan. ‘Internal monetary policy preparations have been completed. The only thing left to do is to make it public, ‘said a NRB source.’ Now we are waiting for the permission of the Ministry of Finance. ‘ The Finance Secretary is a member of the Board of Directors of NRB. However, as it is a subsidiary policy of the fiscal policy (budget), the NRB seeks the opinion of the Ministry of Finance when drafting the monetary policy.

With the formation of the new government led by Prime Minister Deuba, the NRB is in a state of waiting and watching as it is not sure whether the previous government will implement the budget for the current fiscal year or not, whether new programs will be added or not. “Recent events have shown that the new government is unlikely to come up with a new or supplementary budget,” the source said. “If this is the case, then there is no point in delaying the announcement of the monetary policy.” Therefore, there is a strong possibility that monetary policy will be made public this week.