*KARACHI: The State Bank of Pakistan will announce monetary policy onMonday (today), deciding on the interest rate for the next two months. *
In April this year, the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) set the monetarypolicy rate at 12.25%, a statement link fromthe central bank said.
The Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) noted in its statement the significantuncertainty around the outlook for international commodity prices andglobal financial conditions necessitated a strong and proactive policyresponse so it decided at its emergency meeting today, to raise the policyrate by 250 basis points to 12.25 percent.
This increases forward-looking real interest rates (defined as the policyrate less expectedinflation) to mildly positive territory. The MPC was of the view that thisaction would help to safeguard external and price stability.
Read Top Stories
The MPC also notedlink that SBPis in the process of taking further actions to reduce pressures oninflation and the current account, namely an increase in the interest rateon the export refinance scheme (EFS) and widening the set of import itemssubject to cash margin requirements.
