KARACHI: Ismail Suttar, President Employers Federation of Pakistan (EFP) has lauded cut in policy rate and commended efforts by State Bank (SBP) of continuing to maintain credit flow and liquidity for manufacturers and SMEs as reflective in its recent policy rate cut of 100 basis points down to 8 percent.
In a Statement, Ismail Suttar said that EFP Board on 13th April 2020 had held a comprehensive 75-minutes virtual meeting with Governor State Bank of Pakistan Dr. Reza Baqir where the Governor SBP was urged to introduce differentiated rates for active taxpayers and incorporate substantial suitable safeguards in future decisions on cost-of-doing-business to prevent lay-offs and financial crunch.
“Business community values the Governor SBP’s commitment to the EFP Board’s recommendations and the reduction in the policy rate and hoped that for removing the current severe economic crisis, policy rate will be bringing down more, so that trade & industry can get relief, whose business was affected by COVID-19 pandemic”, he said.
EFP president further said that today the new repo rate cut comes in record time to set a historic precedence and Pakistan must move towards rapid digitization for healthy economic growth.