Business community shows displeasure over hike in policy interest rate - Press Release issued by Islamabad Chamber of Commerce and Industry.

Islamabad -- September 22, 2021 (PPI-OT)

Following is the text of press release issued by Islamabad Chamber of Commerce and Industry (ICCI)

Quote

Sardar Yasir Ilyas Khan, President, Islamabad Chamber of Commerce and Industry has expressed displeasure over the decision of the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) to increase the policy interest rate from 7% to 7.25% as it would further increase the credit cost for the private sector, affect the growth and expansion of business activities and give rise to inflation for the common man. Therefore, he demanded that the government should withdraw the increase in interest rates and bring it down to below 5% in order to facilitate the growth of business activities.

He said that the business community has been urging the government for a long time to reduce the interest rate to 4% that would help them to combat the impact of Covid-19 pandemic and expand business and investment activities with the availability of low cost credit. However, contrary to their demands, the SBP has further increased the interest rate, which will create new difficulties for the business community. Giving a comparison of interest rates of regional countries, he said that the central bank interest rate is 0.5% in Thailand, 1.5% in Malaysia, 3.5% in Indonesia, 3.85% in China, 4% in Vietnam and India, 4.75% in Bangladesh and 5% in Nepal, however, SBP has increased it to 7.25% which will affect the growth of business and economy.

Sardar Yasir Ilyas Khan said that the best way to stabilize Pakistan's economy is to create favourable conditions for the business activities. On the contrary, in Pakistan, the value of rupee is falling, prices of petroleum products...