KATHMANDU, 14 April, 2021 (TON): On Wednesday, the Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli in his address to the nation on the occasion of Nepali New Year, he mentioned the achievements and work of his government.

He said, “There were many assumptions regarding the disease from the beginning. However, the government’s priority was to save the lives of people. Schools, industries, even if they were closed for some time could run in the future if we can save people.”

He added, "Keeping that in mind, the government worked to control the spread of the virus and because of our good policies we didn’t fail.”

Oli's address comes amid fears of a second wave of virus transmissions, and more children are being affected this time, causing concern among doctors and public health experts.

Oli, however, said the past year must be viewed as a year of success despite it being mired by the pandemic.

“We were able to gain good agriculture growth and the government tried to bring back balance in the trade deficit and were able to close the deficit gap to some extent last year,” said Oli.

Nepal’s economy though is on the road to recovery now, it took a massive beating last year due to the pandemic and saw a negative growth, he said.

However, the Central Bureau of Statistics said last month that in the fourth quarter of the last fiscal year 2019-20, ending mid-July, the country’s economic growth rate, or output of the gross domestic product, plunged 15.4 percent compared to the same period in 2018-19, which resulted in a year-on-year negative growth rate of 1.99 percent.