Washington Post names Bhattarai its economics correspondent

Washington Post business editor Lori Montgomery sent out the following announcement on Friday:

We are thrilled to announce that Abha Bhattarai will become The Post’s new economics correspondent, helping us make sense of what’s next for the confounding U.S. economy.

Since 2011, Abha has been a stalwart of The Post’s Business Desk, rising from web producer to her most recent job covering the fast-moving retail beat. Particularly during the pandemic, Abha’s work has been revelatory and deeply human. Starting with the first layoffs attributed to the crisis in March 2020, Abha broke major economic news week after week, illuminating the disruption among workers and employers in the hard-hit service sector. She also chronicled emerging issues of inequality as frontline workers lost their jobs or faced infection while many office workers benefited from the relative safety of remote work. Her work was featured in a team entry chronicling the plight of essential workers that was honored with a 2021 Gerald Loeb award for beat reporting.

Before the pandemic, Abha was a standout reporter on the retail beat and the business breaking-news team who once camped out overnight in a Kohl’s parking lot to write about retailers’ desperate efforts to lure holiday shoppers. She also wrote about the impact of the Trump administration on Washington businesses – including strip clubs tuning their televisions to CNN – and about the improbable comeback of Crocs.

Before coming to The Post, Abha wrote for Fast Company and Forbes and served as a James Reston Reporting Fellow at The New York Times, where she covered the Great Recession and white-collar crime. A native of Austin, Abha graduated from Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism. She lives in the District with her husband and two daughters.

Please join us in congratulating Abha on her new role. She starts immediately.