The government begins the process of obtaining the nation's sovereign credit rating.

The process of obtaining Nepal's Sovereign Credit Rating (SCR), which had been postponed for a number of years for various reasons, has now begun.

Currently, a two-person team assigned to the credit rating process from Fitch Ratings Agency (FRA), one of the top three credit rating agencies in the US, has begun consulting with representatives of various government offices. The group has voiced its displeasure with the government's capital expenditure, income mobilization, and foreign aid mobilization policies and actions.

A spokesman for the Ministry of Finance (MoF), Mahesh Bhattarai, stated that the group has examined the macroeconomic system's trends over the last five to 10 years in the nation. He states that the committee would release an initial report on Nepal's SCR within the next three weeks and hopes to finish its work within the following two months.

As long as the nation is given a credit rating, both the public and private sectors will be able to sell bonds on the global market, which might assist the government raise the money it needs. Likewise, by boosting international investors' confidence in the nation, it may aid in increasing the inflow of foreign capital.

Among the SAARC countries, Afghanistan, Bhutan, and Nepal do not currently have sovereign credit ratings. Through the fiscal year 2018–19 budget, the government announced the SCR in an effort to boost foreign investment. The government and the FRA then came to an agreement over the credit rating assignment.

Furthermore, a separate technical support deal was created with UK Aid, formerly known as the British International Cooperation Agency. Standard Chartered Bank was designated as the rating consultant to supervise the procedure. But the COVID-19 pandemic's start caused economic downturns, which is why the rating process has been put on hold for the last four years.

Meanwhile, it has been reported that the FRA has voiced its serious concerns over Nepal's traditional fiscal policies. The FRA representatives claim that the primary reason Nepal's economy has been growing slowly is because the government has been unwilling to take chances, using the country's ongoing foreign issues as a justification. According to a MoF official, "They have raised their concerns on the government's failure to take risks on adopting dynamic measures at the policy level and the lack of innovation in monetary and fiscal policies."