The Central Directorate of National Savings (CDNS) has revised the rates of return on some of its National Savings schemes.

After the revision, the rates of Savings Account (SA) have been raised by 100bps to 20.5% from 19.5% earlier.

However, Special Savings Certificates (SSC) will now yield 18% against 18.2% earlier after a decrease of 20bps.

In addition, the return on Short Term Savings Certificates (STSC) rose to 21.8% from 20.8%, while Regular Income Certificates (RIC) have been set to yield 16.1 % from 15.1% earlier.

The rates of Bahbood Savings Certificates (BSC) and Pensioners Benefit Account (PBA) have been marginally reduced to 16.3% from 16.6% earlier.

The change in the rate of return will take effect from October 30 onward.

The revision in rates of savings schemes came after the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) of the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) kept the key interest rate unchanged at 22% on Monday.

The committee had noted that headline inflation rose in September 2023 as expected.

“However, it is projected to decline in October and then maintain a downward trajectory, especially in the second half of the fiscal year,” it had said.

Pakistan’s headline inflation clocked in at 26.9% on a year-on-year basis in October, the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) said on Wednesday, significantly lower than the reading in September when it stood at 31.4%. On month-on-month basis, it was up 1.1%.