SBP to announce monetary policy on February 11

KARACHI: State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) will announce monetary policy on February 11 for the subsequent two months, chief spokesman for the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) Syed Wasimuddin said on Thursday.

SBP kept its key policy rate unchanged at 12 percent on November 30.

"SBP Governor Yaseen Anwar will unveil the next monetary policy statement at a press conference in Karachi on February 11 at 4 p.m.," said Wasimuddin.

The bank also decided to reschedule its meetings on monetary policy to the first half of February, April, June, August, October and December.

It had previously said meetings would be held in the last week of January, March, May, July, September and November.

Consumer price index (CPI) rose 9.75 percent in December from a year earlier, a 23-month low, but analysts say they believe the decrease in the pace of inflation is temporary.

Pakistan recorded a provisional current account deficit of $2.154 billion in the first six months of the 2011/12 fiscal year, compared with a surplus of $8 million in the same period last year.

The widening of the current account deficit is of grave concern, analysts say, and likely to widen further in the coming months because of debt repayments and a lack of external aid.

The rupee was trading at 90.07/13 to the greenback at 0755 GMT. It fell to a record low of 91.28 to the dollar in intra-day trade last week.