UNESCAP Report on Asia-Pacific Trade and Investment Report published

The United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (UNESCAP) has published its annual Asia-Pacific Trade and Investment Report. The report titled Asia-Pacific Trade and Investment Report 2014: Recent Trends and Development details on intra-regional as well as inter-regional trade, FDI inflows, trade facilitation and trade policy measures, and preferential trade agreements and policies in Asia-Pacific region.

The report has dedicated separate sections to analyse the trade performance of South and South-West Asia and Nepal. The report describes the performance of South and South West Asia’s trade measured by key trade and investment indicators as weak. According to the report, the merchandise exports in the region contracted by 0.2 percent and services grew marginally by 0.6 percent. Similarly, the merchandise imports too contracted by 1.5 percent and services import contracted by 7.5 percent. It also mentions that intra-regional trade in the region was extremely low since 71 percent of exports of the region went outside Asia Pacific region and total of 87 percent of exports went outside South and South West Asia. However, the region performed well in terms of attracting FDI inflows and posted a 6 percent growth in FDI compared to 2012. India remained the single largest recipient of FDI.

Nepal fared much worse compared to rest of South and South West Asia with merchandise exports declining by 3.0 percent and imports of goods and services growing by 8.9 percent and 9.3 percent respectively. Growth in service exports by 25.1 percent was the only positive highlight in Nepal. The report also mentions that inflow of FDI to Nepal also declined dramatically by as much as 19.9 percent in the past year. India and China remain the two most important sources of FDI in Nepal. Read more...