KARACHI: As the Consumer Price Index-based inflation reached a 44-month low at 6.9 percent in September, Federation of Pakistan Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FPCCI) President Atif Ikram Sheikh has categorically requested that the key policy rate be lowered to nine percent.
“A safe buffer for any monetary policy aiming at inflation in the single digits is the 200 basis point (bps) premium at the 9 percent policy rate, which will still exist,” he stated in a statement.
He insisted that the State Bank of Pakistan’s Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) hold an emergency meeting to decide whether to lower the benchmark interest rate, which has been overdue. By the time of the next MPC meeting on November 4, it will be too late to implement the relief.
He continued, “We have a chance to significantly reduce the cost of doing business by enabling access to financing at reasonable rates.”
