Irfan Iqbal Sheikh, President FPCCI expressed concern over an unexpected and massive 250 basis points (bps) hike in the key policy rate by the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) of the State Bank of Pakistan.
He said that the business community is shocked and clueless at the same time on how to cope with its fallout on economic activities, viability of doing business in Pakistan and inevitable adverse impacts on exports – in the absence of any governmental support.
President FPCCI added that a comparative analysis of the interest rates in Pakistan and the regional countries also showed a big difference to Pakistan’s disadvantage; namely, Malaysia is at two percent, China is at 3.7 percent, India is at four percent and Bangladesh is at five percent.
He emphasised that if the interest and export refinancing rates are not decreased drastically in Pakistan, we will not be able to compete with the regional countries as well. —Agencies
