KARACHI: The State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) on Wednesday said it will review existing key policy rate at 7 percent on Monday, September 21, 2020 for next two months.
In its monetary policy announcement on June 25, 2020 the SBP cut the key policy rate to 7 percent. The decision came after the monetary policy committee viewed that the inflation outlook had improved further, while the domestic economic slowdown continued and downside risks had grown.
In the wake of coronavirus pandemic the central bank significantly reduced the discount rate. Through policy decision on June 25, 2020 the SBP brought down the cumulative policy rate since mid-March 2020 to 625 basis points.
Due to frequent changes in policy rate the regular meeting of the monetary policy committee was not held that was scheduled in July 2020.
The SBP said that the given the number of MPC meetings that had taken place in recent months, and actions taken in those meetings, the MPC had not consider it necessary to hold the regular meeting of July 2020.
“The next regular meeting of the MPC will now be held in September 2020. The MPC continues to observe economic conditions and stands ready to take whatever further actions may become necessary in response to any adverse impact on the economy because of the pandemic or any other factor,” the SBP said in its press statement issued on July 24, 2020.
