Islamabad: The Islamabad Chamber of Commerce & Industry (ICCI) has called upon the State Bank of Pakistan’s Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) to make decent cut in policy interest rate while reviewing the monetary policy on July 27, 2021 and bring it down to 3-4% in order to stimulate the economic activity and turn around the economy.

Sardar Yasir Ilyas Khan, President, Islamabad Chamber of Commerce & Industry said that countries around the world had made drastic cut in policy interest rate to enable businesses to combat the impact of Covid-19 pandemic, but the State Bank of Pakistan was still maintaining interest rate at 7%, which was considered quite high as compared to many other countries. Giving a comparison, he said that policy interest rate in Japan was -0.10%, European countries zero percent, Thailand & South Korea0.50%, Philippines1.50%, Malaysia 1.75%, Indonesia 3.50%, China 3.85%, India 4% and Pakistan 7%, which has made the credit cost quite high for businesses in our country and was considered a major constraint for expansion and smooth growth of business activities.