LAHORE:Federation of Pakistan Chambers of Commerce & Industry (FPCCI) on Tuesday urged the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) to review its decision of raising interest rate to 13.75 percent for the sake of domestic businesses and industries.
Muhammad Nadeem Qureshi, Regional Chairman FPCCI, told media here that policy rate hike by State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) would add to the difficulties of businesses. “Business, industry, and trade community is in a fix as how to cope with its fallout on economic activities, viability of doing business in the country, and adverse impacts on exports,” Qureshi said.
Nadeem Qureshi added that the policy rate in Pakistan was comparatively higher than regional countries such as Malaysia at 2 percent, China at 3.7 percent, India at 4 percent, and Bangladesh at 5 percent.
“Pakistan will not be able to compete with the regional countries with high interest and export refinancing rates.”
He elaborated that it was the business community’s demand, even before the recent interest rate raise that the policy rate should be gradually brought down from 12.25 percent to ensure availability of capital to businesses at lower and affordable rates.