Industrial sector: SBP urged to announce at least 3 percent cut in discount rate

The Lahore Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI) has urged the State Bank of Pakistan to support industrial sector by announcing a drastic cut of at least three percent in the discount rate. The LCCI President Ijaz A Mumtaz in a statement said that a notable cut of three percent in the discount rate by the State Bank of Pakistan would give a big relief to the industrial sector.
He said that SBP positive initiative would also make the Pakistani products competitive in the international market as fluctuation in discount rates controls the industrial input cost. He said that this fact should be an eye opener for the policy makers that Japan, Sweden and Switzerland are aiding their industrial sector at zero percent discount rate as compared to Pakistan.
He said that ongoing economic scenario shows that there is hardly any time left for economic managers of the country and they all should understand well that a 50 to 100 basis point cut will be too little. He said that it was very unfortunate that we have failed to learn any lesson from the tighter monetary policy stance adopted by the State bank of Pakistan in the yester years.
He said that the State Bank of Pakistan should understand that its continued tighter stance is inflicting a very heavy loss on the nation as the economy has already paid a very high price because of high interest rate. He urged the State Bank of Pakistan to announce at least 300 basis points cut in discount rate that would certainly give jumpstart to the economic activities in the country.