KARACHI – The State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) has decided to keep the interest rate unchanged at 22 percent.
Addressing a press conference after convening Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) meeting in the port city on Monday, SBP Governor Jameel Ahmad said that the mark-up rate will remain unchanged for the next two months.
He said that the MPC has decided to keep the policy rate unchanged after reviewing the overall financial position, economic indicators and performance of different sectors.
Jameel Ahmad said that the SBP expected 2-3 percent growth during the current fiscal year.
He said that the inflation is expected to remain in the range of 20-22 percent during the ongoing financial year.
Current account deficit will remain in the range of 0.5-1.5 percent during the period, he said.
The SBP has already announced a half-yearly schedule of MPC meetings on a rolling basis.
The MPC, headed by SBP Governor Jameel Ahmad, convened its first meeting of fiscal year 2023-24 on Monday.
The remaining three meetings of the MPC during the first half of the current fiscal year will be convened on September 14 (Thursday), October 30 (Monday and December 12 (Tuesday).
MPC formulates the monetary policy, takes decisions relating to intermediate monetary objectives, key interest rates and the supply of reserves and makes regulations for their implementation; approve and issue the monetary policy statement and other monetary policy measures.
