Faisalabad Chamber of Commerce & Industry (FCCI) on Tuesday hailing the decrease of 100-Basic Points in policy rate by State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) has demanded further decrease in it. In a press statement, FCCI acting president Dr Sajjad Arshad said the policy rate had started declining from historically high policy rate of 22 per cent which indicated that the economy was on the right track. He said that a single digit policy rate was imperative to spur economic growth but a decrease of only 100-basic points after every two months was just a peanut and it would take two years to trim the policy rate to 9 per cent. He demanded that at least 200-basic points in policy rate may be reduced after every two months so that the Small Medium Enterprises (SME) sector could get cheap loans and thus play its catalyzing role in enhancing industrial production and exports.

Dr Sajjad Arshad also expressed satisfaction over the decrease in inflation and said that according to the SBP Governor it had come down to 12.6 per cent from 38 percent. “However, the governor has predicted that it would remain between 11.5 to 13.5%”, he said and added that it would certainly give a sigh of relief to the people suffering from skyrocketing prices of consumable items. He said the government must pass on maximum relief to the people instead of adding additional burden of taxes. He also voiced contentment over the CCC+ credit rating for Pakistan by Fitch Rating Company. The decision would help the economy to recover on a fast track as PSX had already witnessed a bullish trend, he added.

Credit: Independent News Pakistan