KARACHI: The trade and industry has welcomed the central bank's move to reduce discount rate by 1.5 per cent in its monetary policy announced on Friday.
Patron In-Chief Korangi Association of Trade and Industry (KATI) S M Muneer, Chairman Ehtesham Uddin, President All Karachi Industrial Alliance (AKIA) Mian Zahid Hussain, Vice Chairmen Hasham A Razzak Tariq Malik and Chairman Press and Media Committee, Syed Johar Ali Qandhari while welcoming the decision by Governor State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) Yasin Anwar to bring down the interest rate from 12 per cent to 10.5 per cent said that trade and industry is demanding for long to reduce interest rate considering the worst scenario of national economy and sinking industry due to high input cost and ever-increasing prices of POL and utilities tariffs.
Chairman KATI Ehtesham Uddin said that business community is firm on its demand to bring down the interest into single digit in order to provide breathing space to the industrial sector.
He said that many countries including Japan and USA have brought down interest rate to zero per cent considering the economic slow-down and in quest to revive their economies.
He hoped that SBP would finally reduce the discount rate to below nine per cent considering the mounting non-performing loans which have now crossed the alarming level of Rs500 billion mainly due to closure of industry.
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