SBP to announce Monetary Policy decision on March 18

March 05, 2024 (MLN): The Monetary Policy Committee (MPC)  of the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) will meet on March 18, 2024, to decide on the Monetary Policy.

In the last MPC meeting, the committee kept interest rates unchanged at 22% for the fifth consecutive meeting.

Market participants have strengthened their hopes for a rate cut soon as the latest inflation figures showed that the Consumer Price Index (CPI) slowed to a 20-month low of 23.1% YoY.

This became further evident after the secondary market yields witnessed a significant drop in the previous session with the benchmark 6-month Karachi Interbank Bid and Offer rates (KIBOR) dropping by 10 basis points (bps) to 21.34% and 21.59%.

To recall on January 23, 2024, the central bank released the advance calendar of MPC meetings to make the process of monetary policy formulation predictable and transparent.

The schedule shows the central bank planned to hold four meetings in the second half of the ongoing fiscal year (2HFY24).

One was held on January 29, 2024, the next is scheduled for March 18, 2024, and the remaining two are set for April 29 and June 10, 2024, respectively.

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