KARACHI: The Monetary Policy Committee of the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) is scheduled to meet on September 16, 2019 to take a cautious decision on policy rate amid rising trends in the Consumer Price Index (CPI)-based inflation and the federal government’s willingness to slash down the rate.
In August, capital market observed healthy inflows, while the inflow from US financial institutions in treasury bills amounted at $77 million.
Meanwhile, the outflow from UK financial institutions in treasury bills stood at $5.8 million, followed by net inflows at $71 million.
Recently, the government allowed non-resident Pakistanis to invest in the capital market, whereas tax breaks facilitated addition of foreign investments in government securities.
Moreover, the government has halted selling Rs40,000 bonds, leading to encashment, selling and conversion of the prize bond.In the months of June and July, the selling and conversion of the prize bond amounted to Rs176 billion. Earlier, the investment in Rs40,000 prize bonds clock at Rs258 billion.
At the end of July, the investment in bonds slipped to Rs82 billion, while registered prize bonds witnessed an increase of Rs7.1 billion. Thereby, investment of registered bonds at the end of the month amounted to Rs13.28 billion. In May, the investment in registered bonds stood at Rs6.170 billion.
The overall investment in bonds slipped by Rs185 billion from Rs951 billion two months ago to the current Rs766 billion.
