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Pakistan Cuts Interest Rate

Pakistan Cuts Interest Rate
Pakistan Cuts Interest Rate

Pakistan cut its benchmark interest rate as the central bank seeks to encourage economic growth amid falling oil prices, Bloomberg reported. Governor Ashraf Mahmood Wathra lowered the target policy rate to 6% from 6.5%, the State Bank of Pakistan said in a statement on its website on Saturday. The move was predicted by 11 of 21 economists in a Bloomberg survey, with the rest seeing no change. “For another year and a half we don’t see rates bouncing back unless oil bounces back,” Mohsen Siddiqui, portfolio manager at Abbasi Securities Pvt., said by phone from Karachi before the decision. “So far we see downward volatility in oil prices.”  Brent crude has tumbled about 50% over the past year. Pakistan’s exports fell in August for the fourth straight month, imperiling Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s goal of spurring economic expansion to the fastest since 2008.

 

Financialtribune.com