Kathmandu, Sept. 19 -- In the first two months of the last fiscal year, NMB Bank had issued letters of credit, or LCs in common usage, worth Rs6.5 billion. During the same period this fiscal year, it has issued them worth just Rs3.5 billion.

Most of the letters of credit issued in these two months are to import goods targeting Dashain and Tihar festivals, according to Sunil KC, the bank's chief executive officer.

In normal times this is also the period the country's commercial banks would be busy issuing loans particularly for importing goods for consumption during the festivals. But loans too have gone down in the face of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Commercial banks have lent just Rs21 billion during this period, down from Rs54 billion in ...