The Monetary Policy Committee of the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) will meet on Friday, March 19, 2021, at SBP Karachi to decide about Monetary Policy.

Later on, SBP will issue the Monetary Policy Statement on the same day.

The Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) in its statement dated 22 January 2021 decided to maintain the policy rate at 7 percent, as per market expectations. However, the statement cautions that notwithstanding favourable growth and inflation developments considerable uncertainty remains around the outlook mainly sourced to Covid-19 with an emphasis on external shocks.

"The [Monetary Policy Committee] felt that the existing accommodative stance of monetary policy remained appropriate to support the nascent recovery while keeping inflation expectations well-anchored," SBP said in a statement in January.

It was the third time that the central bank kept its main policy rate unchanged after cutting it by 625 basis points, down from 13.25pc, at the time the global pandemic hit its economy last February.