No change expected in interest rate
SBP will announce benchmark interest rate for next two months today
Earlier, the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) had cut the benchmark interest rate by an aggressive 625 basis points during March-June 2020 to the current 7%. PHOTO: FILE
KARACHI:
Pakistan’s central bank is scheduled to meet on Friday (Jan 22) to determine the benchmark interest rate for the next two-month amid a situation whereby the second wave of Covid-19 pandemic still poses risk to economic activities.
Moreover, the government has increased power tariff by Rs1.95 per unit to resume the International Monetary Fund’s (IMF) loan programme. It has also passed on hike in international oil prices on to the local consumers. The current account balance, after remaining in surplus for the previous five successive months (Jul-Nov 2020), also turned negative in December 2020. Experts, however, believe inflation is manageable.
It looks like this was the result of either:
A mistyped address
A broken link on our site
A broken link on a search engine results page
A broken link on someone else s page
Some things to try:
Use the navigation menu at the top Most Read
Remittances received by the country from overseas Pakistanis set another record in December 2020 as inflows stood above $2 billion for the sixth consecutive month
Rupee likely to stay stable, gold may fall
Currency may lose 2-4% over the year; with availability of vaccines gold unlikely to hit new highs
Pakistan’s currency is expected to gradually depreciate in the range of 2-4% to around Rs164-66 to a dollar over the next one year as the gap between demand and supply of foreign currency will remain narrow during the year of economic revival, ie 2021.
The expected receipt of International Monetary Fund (IMF) loan tranches, launch of Eurobond and Sukuk to raise financing in international markets, new financing from other global financial institutions, improvement in workers’ remittances and a nominal deficit in the current account balance altogether will support the rupee to stay firm during 2021.