KARACHI - President of the Karachi Chamber of Commerce and Industry (KCCI), Abdullah Zaki has expressed sheer disappointment over State Bank’s decision to keep monetary policy unchanged at 10 per cent for the next two months despite the fact that various economic indicators of the country have started showing signs of improvement.
In a statement issued, Abdullah Zaki pointed out that although the policies adopted by the present government have started yielding positive results as the value of US dollar against Pakistani rupee descended sharply to around Rs100 and the inflation remains single digit yet the SBP kept key policy rate unchanged which is very disheartening. He urged the State Bank to review its decision and bring down the key policy rate by at least 1 percent to 9 percent in order to reduce the cost of doing business and give some relief to the business community members who are already under immense pressure due to recent depreciation of US dollar. Abdullah further pointed out that inflation figures have been encouraging for the last three months, as the Consumer Price Index (CPI) decreased from double digits in November to 9.2 percent in December, 7.91 percent in January and 7.93 percent in February. The rupee has also appreciated 7 percent since January, thus building a strong case for a rate cut but no relief has been provided in SBP’s Monetary Policy Statement.