The State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) will announce Monetary Policy Statement for next two months today (Saturday) amid expectations of a status quo. The central bank''s board of directors will meet at SBP Head Office to take a decision on key interest rate. The board will review all economic internal and external indicators particularly inflation, current account deficit, government borrowing and forex reserves to finalise monetary policy for next two months.
Ashraf Mehmood Wathra, governor SBP, will announce the monetary policy through a press conference. Economists and analysts expect that the central bank is likely to keep the policy rate unchanged at 10 percent for next two months to avoid risk to the growing economy of the country.
They are of the view that most probably the SBP may keep policy rate at 10 percent ahead of expected inflationary pressure on the economy followed by Ramazan and budget impact. The CPI inflation for June 2014 clocked in at 8.22 percent compared to 8.3 percent in May 2014.