Kathmandu, June 15 -- Nepal's industrial sector is showing further signs of strain, with new industry registrations, factory utilisation and industrial credit growth all declining in the first half of the current fiscal year, underscoring concerns about the country's weak investment climate and slowing industrialisation.

A total of 461 new industries, ranging from small and medium enterprises to large-scale factories, were registered nationwide between mid-July and mid-January, according to a recent report released by Nepal Rastra Bank. The figure is 120 lower than during the same period of the previous fiscal year, when 581 industries were registered.

Industrialists and business leaders attribute the decline to long-standing structural...