Nepal's Finance Minister Janardan Sharma has asked citizens living abroad to deposit funds in domestic banks to ensure the Nepal financial system has enough liquidity and to preserve foreign reserves on Saturday.

Nepali citizens working abroad could benefit from 6 to 7% interest offered by Nepali banks by depositing their savings in Nepal, Sharma said.

The country's foreign exchange reserves fell over 18% to USD 9.6 billion as of mid-March from mid-July. However, Minister Sharma has denied Nepal is facing an economic crisis despite the struggles of the tourism industry to recover post-Covid.

Nepal has decided to accept USD 659 million in aid from the USA and about USD 150 million in soft loan from the World Bank. The money received by USA will be a non-refundable grant, said Sharma.