This paper develops a macroeconomic forecasting model focusing on fiscal policy and economic growth in Nepal. The structure of the model, which comprises a total of 14 equations, allows alternative policy options for maintaining fiscal stability and promoting economic growth as well as switching deficit financing between domestic and foreign loans. We use annual data from 1992/93 to 2009/10 to estimate the model and provide out-sample forecasts for 2010/11 to 2012/13, consistent with the current Three Year Plan period, in order to evaluate the plan performance. The empirical evidence suggests that fiscal policy, particularly governments’ capital expenditure affects economic growth positively and also crowds-in private investment. However, there exists a trade-off between fiscal stability and high level of economic growth as the policy goal of achieving both objectives seems to be unattainable. Finally, the out-sample forecast suggests that it is unlikely to attain the targeted economic growth in the Three Year Plan period from the planned fiscal outlay even if it is realized.

This study is carried out to estimate the trade potentiality of Nepal using gravity model. The gravity model simply explains that the volume of trade between pairs of countries is a positive function of the size of two countries and negative function of the distance between them. The study has used coefficients of the model to predict Nepal�s foreign trade for the year 2009. The trade potentiality is calculated with the help of the ratio of predicted trade to actual trade. The result is fluctuating: some countries crossed the limits whereas some countries are still below the potential trade. The study has used gravity model to evaluate the determinants of foreign trade of Nepal using secondary data including 19 major trade partners. The estimated result of Nepal�s trade potentiality shows that Nepal has exceeded trade potentiality with her 10 trading partners, including giant neighbors India and China, and there remains trade potentiality with 9 trade partners including another neighbor Bangladesh.

The volume of international tourist arrivals is the prime concern for both the tourism entrepreneurs and policy makers, as the arrivals is directly associated with foreign exchange earnings or export benefits, and tourism induced economic activities. The overall average annual growth of international tourist arrivals in the country over the last 40 years is about 6.65 percent. The mean contribution of tourism sector as a percentage of GDP was 2.67 percent during the last 35 years. This paper explores the risk associated in the Nepalese tourism industry taking account of monthly international tourist arrivals. The symmetric and asymmetric conditional mean and volatility models, GARCH, GARCH-GJR and EGARCH with exogenous ARMA terms were applied for data analysis. The empirical results showed that the long run risk or volatility is persistence in monthly international tourist arrivals and estimated coefficients are statistically significant. The volatility can be inferred as risk or uncertainty associated with international tourist arrivals in Nepalese tourism industry. Therefore, this empirical study envisages sufficient room for intervening or amending the tourism policy to better attract international visitors and promote tourism as a business.

Tourism seems to be widely recognized as the one among a few sectors in Nepal which can be an engine of economic growth. However, there are few empirical studies about Nepalese tourism. This paper, thus, attempts to examine the impact of tourism and other related macroeconomic variables on the economic growth of Nepal by deriving tourism income multiplier from the Keynesian macroeconomic model. The three stage least square and seemingly unrelated regressions are the techniques employed for estimating the value of multiplier. The estimated value of multiplier based on regression results over thirty six year period from 1975 to 2010 is estimated at 1.21. In addition, Granger causality tests are used to confirm the direction of the impact of one variable on another variable, which reveals that there exists bi-directional impact in the case of tourism receipts and GDP. In addition, tourism receipts are found to have bi-directional relationship with some other variables such as GNI, exports, private consumption, imports and so on. Thus, tourism multiplier and the Granger causality tests show that tourism is important component for economic growth in Nepal.