KARACHI: State Bank of Pakistan likely to give good news on the economicfront with a policy rate cut.
As the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) is all set to announce its monetarypolicy later this week, almost all major brokerage houses and analysts havepredicted that the current policy rate of 13.25pc will experience a cut.
Profit called 16 leading financial institutions and enquired about theirstance regarding the upcoming monetary policy announcement. Fifteenresponded while Al Habib Capital Markets reserved comments until the weeklySensitive Price Index numbers are released.
Of the 15 that called, only two expect the policy rate to remain unchanged,while the remaining expect a policy cut. The mode is a 50bps cut. No houseanticipates a rate hike.
The houses may change their stances if the Sensitive Price Index datareleased at the end of this week is different from their expectations.
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The Monetary Policy Committee of the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) will meeton Tuesday, March 17, 2020, to decide about the monetary policy.
The last rate hike was made in July 2019 to 13.25pc, following which thepolicy rate has remained unchanged. The cycle of monetary tightening wasundertaken to control the rising inflation rate.
