Another Pakistani Central Bank Rate Hike
April 4, 2023
One monetary authority whose officials couldn’t afford to put policy tightening on pause is the State Bank of Pakistan. In a meeting scheduled initially for April 27 but moved up in the month, officials raised their policy rate for a tenth time since September 2021, but the percentage point increment announced today was only a third as much as the previous hike of 300 basis points in February. Against the backdrop of a near-tripling of CPI inflation from 12.7% in March 2022 to 35.4% last month, Pakistan’s policy interest rate has similarly risen to 21% from a pandemic low of 7.0% maintained from June 2020 to September 2021. Monetary officials today were additionally motivated by the need to secure a loan from the IMF that has been delayed.
Copyright 2023, Larry Greenberg. All rights reserved. No secondary distribution without express permission.
Tags: State Bank of Pakistan
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