Multan Chamber of Commerce and Industry (MCCI) welcomed the decision of State Bank of Pakistan to maintaining its policy rate of 6.5 percent for the next two months and hoped that policy rate would be at 6 percent if the federal government stopped to borrow from the scheduled banks at a rate closer to the SBP's corridor ceiling of 7 percent than the SBP's target rate of 6.50 percent.
President of Multan Chamber of Commerce and Industry (MCCI) Mian Iqbal Hassan said the government should attract the Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) to avoid borrowing from international financial institutions with harsh conditions and Pakistan should pay its proper attention towards exports to activate its commercial attaches and consular serving in different countries."
Improvements in macroeconomic indicators helped SBP to continue with its accommodative monetary policy and slash the policy rate by a cumulative 300 bps in Financial Year 2015.In addition to this, narrowing of fiscal deficit and continuation of Extended Fund Facility (EFF) would improve the market sentiments.
These developments may lead to an upgrade of Pakistan's sovereign ratings by international rating agencies in recent months. Macroeconomic stability thus achieved should reflect positively on real economic activity going forward.