आर्थिक तथा बैकिङ्ग ज्ञान : जिज्ञाशा न. १७ : Why per capita GNI estimates from the World Bank and the Central Bureau of Statistics differ?

In Nepal, GNI in Nepalese rupees is converted to US dollars by dividing the GNI figure by USD exchange rate and then divided by population of the country to obtain nominal per capita GNI estimate in USD. However, the World Bank used Atlas method for the purpose. In this method, GNI in local currency is converted into U.S. dollars using the Atlas conversion factor, which uses a three-year average of exchange rates adjusted for the difference between the rate of inflation in the country and that in a number of developed countries. The resulting GNI in U.S. dollars is divided by the country's midyear population to obtain the GNI per capita.

 Due to the difference of methodologies, the GNI per capita figures estimated by CBS, Nepal and the World Bank differs slightly. The following chart exhibits the differences in GNI estimates obatained from the two methods.

To know more about the World Bank Atlas Method, click here.