PESHAWAR: President Sarhad Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Hasnain Khurshid Ahmad has expressed serious reservations over monetary policy announced by State Bank of Pakistan and rejected the hike in interest rate by 150 basis points to 8.75 percent.

He feared the abrupt high increase in interest rate would not only bring negative impacts on industrial production and businesses but a new wave of inflation would also hit every segment of the society.

Hasnain Khurshid was chairing a meeting of industrialists and traders here at the chamber house on Saturday.

SCCI chief informed that the State Bank of Pakistan has announced monetary policy for the next two months and raised the interest rate by 1.50 percent, after which the interest rate has been fixed at 8.75 percent for the next 2 months.

Earlier, he added that the SBP had fixed the interest rate at 7.25 percent.

Khurshid said the hike in interest rate by 8.75 percent is completely unfavourable for businesses and the economy, which are still not fully recovered from the post-coronavirus pandemic scenario.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2021