LAHORE: The Lahore Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI) on Saturday urged the State Bank of Pakistan(SBP) to make another 150 to 200 basis points cut in policy rate in the third monetary policy, likely to be announced on November 30, to revive businesses, overcome low growth, encourage new investment and jump-start the national economy.
In a joint statement issued here, Chamber's President Irfan Qaiser Sheikh, Senior Vice President Kashif Younis Meher and Vice President Saeeda Nazar said that the availability of cheaper money to business-doing people was a must to expedite the process of industrialisation that would ultimately result in much-needed job creation.
They said that a 150 basis point cut made after a long period of eight years by the SBP in previous bi-monthly monetary policy was quite encouraging but still the interest rate needed to be brought to a single digit.
They said that the economic situation showed that there was hardly any time left for economic managers of the country to help stop industrial closures and defaults.
Therefore, people sitting at the helm of affairs in the government and the SBP should understand that a 50 basis point cut will be too little to do any favour to the business community, they added.
The LCCI office-bearers said that the economic meltdown in recent years had already proved that high policy rate caused a great harm to the economy and would continue to widen the fiscal deficit unless and until a realistic approach towards the important area was adopted.
The LCCI office-bearers said that all major economies despite having higher inflation rates had either curtailed or were in the process of reducing interest rates to protect their respective economies.
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