Swarnim Waglé is the Federal Minister of Finance of Nepal. He was elected Member of Parliament (MP) from Tanahun-1 constituency for a second consecutive term in March 2026. He was also elected unopposed as the Vice-Chair of the ruling Rastriya Swatantra Party (RSP) during its first general convention.

Dr. Waglé has been an international development professional for over 25 years. He has served as the Chief Economic Advisor at the UNDP Regional Bureau for Asia and the Pacific (RBAP) in New York and as Senior Economist at the World Bank in Washington, DC. Between 2014 and 2018, he worked at the National Planning Commission (NPC) in the Government of Nepal for three intermittent years, first as Member and then as Vice-Chair. In the aftermath of the devastating Nepal earthquake of 2015, he co-led the Post Disaster Needs Assessment (PDNA) and helped garner a pledge of US$4 billion for reconstruction.

Between 2019 and 2026, Dr. Waglé steered a South Asian policy think-tank, the Institute for Integrated Development Studies (IIDS), of which he is Chairman Emeritus. He is a past senator of Kathmandu University; an eminent member of the South Asia Regional Champions; and former consultant at the Asian Development Bank (Manila) and the International Trade Center (Geneva). Widely published, he co-edited The Great Upheaval (Cambridge University Press, 2022); co-authored the global Human Development Report (2013) The Rise of the South; and was South Asia editor of Harvard Asia Quarterly (2000).

Swarnim Waglé holds a doctorate in economics from the Australian National University, master’s in international development (MPA/ID) from Harvard University, and BSc (Econ) from the London School of Economics. He was born in Gorkha in 1974; is married, with one son.