The burden of unemployment

We cannot afford off-and-on lockdowns and prohibitory orders that jeopardise the economy.

A recent Nepal Rastra Bank survey which looked into the effects of Covid-19 on Nepal’s economy showed that tens of thousands of people were rendered jobless during the four-month-long lockdown while there was a massive disruption in the production and supply chain as 61 percent of businesses shut their operations completely. The survey, which covered 52 districts involving 674 industries, business ventures and start-ups, reported that small and medium scale enterprises and early-stage start-ups were among the worst hit while 77.2 percent of the businesses did not have the cash flow to pay employee salaries besides other fixed expenditures.