The State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) announced on Monday that it had decided to cut the interest rate by 100 basis points (bps) to 19.5 per cent from the previous rate of 20.5pc.
In a statement, SBP Governor Jameel Ahmed said the central bank’s Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) met earlier today and reviewed the current economic developments, highlighting inflation had declined from a record-high of 38pc in May to 12.6 last month.
The MPC statement said that the “committee observed that the June 2024 inflation was slightly better than anticipated. The Committee also assessed that the inflationary impact of the FY [Fiscal year] 2025 budgetary measures was broadly in line with earlier expectations”.
It also noted that the external account has continued to improve, as reflected in SBP’s foreign exchange reserves “despite substantial repayments of debt and other obligations”.
Due to these reasons, the committee “viewed that there was a room to further reduce the policy rate in a calibrated manner to support economic activity, while keeping inflationary pressures in check”.
On positive developments, the statement said that the current account deficit had narrowed in the fiscal year 2024 and SBP’s FX reserves had “improved significantly from $4.4 billion at end-June 2023 to above $9.0 billion”.
Furthermore, it highlighted that the country had reached a staff level agreement with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for a 3-year extended fund facility programme of $7bn.
Previously, the headline inflation for June clocked in at 12.6pc on year-on- year, according to data from the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS).
Earlier, market participants had widely anticipated a rate cut given June’s inflation rate of 12.6pc, significantly lower than the interest rate of 20.5pc, though opinions had varied on the extent of the reduction.
More to follow
