LAHORE: The Lahore Chamber of Commerce and Industry has urged the State Bank of Pakistan to bring down the discount rate to give a jumpstart to the economic activities.
In a statement issued on Tuesday, the LCCI Acting President Mian Tariq Misbah said that SBP has to make a drastic cut at least by 250 to 300 basis points in discount rate in the next monitory policy to ensure cheap financing for industrial sector.
The LCCI Acting President said that a cut of 50 to 100 basis points would not be doing any service to the dwindling economy. He said that it was very unfortunate that we have failed to learn any lesson from the tighter monetary policy stance adopted by the State bank of Pakistan in the yester years.
He said that economic managers should understand well that a 50 to 100 basis point cut will be too little.
Mian Tariq Misbah said that it is now before all of us that high discount rate is no more sustainable. It has been causing a great harm to economy and would continue to do so unless and until a realist approach is adopted.
He said that despite higher inflation all the major economies have either curtailed or are in the process of reducing high interest rates to protect their economies.
The LCCI Acting President said that the State Bank of Pakistan should understand that its continued tighter stance is inflicting a very heavy loss as the economy has already paid a very high price because of high interest rate.
He urged the State Bank of Pakistan to announce at least 250 to 300 basic points cut in markup rates that would certainly give jumpstart to the economic activities in the country.
He said that present regime was making out its best efforts for economic revival of the country and cut in discount rate would be a bigger relief to the manufacturing sector.
