KARACHI: At its meeting today, the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) decided to keep the policy rate unchanged at 22 percent.
The Committee noted that the economic uncertainty has decreased since the last meeting, whereas near-term external sector challenges have been largely addressed and investor confidence has shown improvement.
While some upside risks to the inflation outlook have emerged, the Committee also took note of the expected lagged impact of the accumulated monetary tightening so far, budgeted fiscal consolidation, and the tepid growth outlook for FY24.
The MPC particularly noted that year-on-year (y/y) inflation is likely to remain on downward path over the next 12 months, which implies a significant level of positive real interest rate.