Bankers told myrepublica.com that the inter-bank lending rate too scaled down to 11 percent at maximum from 14.5 percent recorded last week. [break]
"Market has stated showing positive impacts of the additional liquidity injected by the central bank and it is likely that the rate will further decline once the full impact of the added liquidity is felt in the money market,” a banker told myrepublica.com.
The central bank on Sunday issued the largest-ever repo worth Rs 10 billion, of which only half was subscribed, bringing down the short-term central bank lending rate to 7.41 percent on average from 12.42 percent recorded last week.
The latest step of NRB came after the earlier injection, amounting Rs 15 billion failed to satisfy market demand of liquidity.
Rupee at 15-month high
Nepali rupee rose to its highest level in more than 15 months on Monday, as Indian currency strengthened on the back of high demand of greenback by importers.
The partially convertible Nepali rupee gained by 60 paisa compared to the selling rate fixed by Nepal Rastra Bank for Monday. The central bank has fixed selling rate of Rs 72.90 per US dollar for Tuesday´s trading whereas it was Rs 73.50 on Monday.
In Indian market, the exchange rate of US dollar vis-à-vis Indian currency closed at IRs 45.35 on Monday though it was slightly lower than the rate recorded on Friday when the Indian rupee closed at IRs 45.75, its strongest since September 2008.
Since Nepal maintains a fixed exchange rate with Indian currency, any change in the Indian currency is directly reflected in the exchange of Nepali with major currencies, including the US dollar.
Revised interest rate corridor system introduced