Dasain is over in Nepal.
There's an old saying in Nepali-
"Dasain came, beating the drum. Dasain left, and now we pay the bills"
And winter will come. As C K Lal, (the journalist for the Nepali Times) pointed out, in ten days is Tiwari, the festival of Lights. The Hindu equivalent of Christmas lights.
Oil from China?
In case you missed it, there is some excellent analysis of the "Let's just switch to getting our oil from China" on my other blog, and it's getting some serious hits from within Nepal. Click here to read it.
Dhoti Day
In Gulariya. The blue plaid skirt is a dhoti. In Kathmandu the Brahmins will wear a white dhoti for certain kinds of puja (prayer). Most of the time in Kathmandu, the guy you see in a dhoti are selling fruit from special bicycles. They get it from places like the wholesale market in Kalimati and fan out through the city.
This man here is in Terai and he's a rickshaw puller. These days he's making a killing! https://www.facebook.com/...
There was a demonstration of solidarity with Terai, called "Dhoti Day" in which Kathmandu residents wore a dhoti, usually associated with Nepalis of Terai.
The big speculation is whether the petrol crisis will resume at full strength.
The government is back at the job, still choosing cabinet ministers and other officeholders. They may or may not be addressing Constitutional amendments this week.
Banks and Liquidity
The only real important news is a report from the banking sector. It's titled: Liquidity surplus rises as lending comes to a halt due to Tarai turmoil
"Current political crisis has deepened and Tarai turmoil is worsening. It has seriously hit the banks' loans and advances. The surplus of fund is obvious as there are no borrowers at all," Ashok Sherchan, CEO of Prabhu Bank Ltd, said.
Steep rise in liquidity surplus is also attributed to the central bank's approach of slowing the pace of mopping up funds. NRB, which used to issue deposit collection frequently earlier, has stopped issuing this monetary operation since August 13 while outright sale auction has not been held since August 27. The central bank, however, is using the reverse repo instrument on a regular basis. The latest was issued on Wednesday to collect Rs 10 billion. - See more at: http://myrepublica.com/...
Nepal has it's own currency. There is no lack of foreign exchange due to the tourism sector, the NGO sector, and the remittance sector. I have been meaning to puzzle out the longterm fiscal effects of this - they are losing billions per day, and manufacturing (centered in Terai) has been hard hit.
That's it for today!