Karachi July 14 2023: State Bank of Pakistan to hold next Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) on 31st July 2023 for setting policy rate.
The concerning factor about further hike in interest rates is International Monetary Fund expectation of average inflation at 25.9 percent for fiscal year 2024 against government expectation of 21 percent.
On June 26 2023, the MPC convened an emergency meeting and decided to raise the policy rate by 100 bps to 22 percent due to slightly deteriorated inflation outlook on fiscal adjustments and withdrawal of guidance for commercial banks on prioritization of imports. The MPC views this action as necessary to keep real interest rate firmly in the positive territory on a forward-looking basis. This would help further anchor inflation expectations – which are already moderating over the last few months, and support bringing down inflation towards the medium term target of 5 – 7 percent by the end of FY25, barring any unforeseen developments.
To make the process of monetary policy formulation predictable and transparent, the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) announces a half-yearly schedule of Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) meetings on a rolling basis. In this regard, the dates for the next four meetings are as follows:
- Monday, July 31, 2023 *
- Thursday, September 14, 2023
- Monday, October 30, 2023
- Tuesday, December 12, 2023
