State Bank keeps policy rate unchanged at 5.75pc

KARACHI: The State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) on Saturday kept the key policy rate unchanged at 5.75 percent for the next two months, citing widening current account deficit, uncertain global oil prices and increased inflation as the main reasons.  

“The year-on-year CPI (consumer price index) inflation rose to 3.6 percent in August 2016 from 1.8 percent in August 2015, while the average inflation during the first two months of the current fiscal year was more than double the same period last year,” the monetary policy committee of the central bank said in a statement.  In July, the central bank also kept the policy rate unchanged at 5.75 percent.