SBP cuts interest rate by 100 points

State Bank of Pakistan has slashed the discount rate by 100 basis points, report said on Saturday. At a press conference here Saturday, Governor SBP Syed Saleem Raza announced the monetary policy.

He announced that the SBP has decided to slash the discount rate by 100 basis points. “The SBP has cut the discount rate by one percentage points from the current 14 per cent,” Raza said. The governor said GDP ratio reaches 2.1 pc. He said foreign exchange reserves improved sharply and stood at $9.1 billion. The SBP has cut the discount rate by one percentage points from the current 14 per cent. It had cut the rate by one percentage point in April this year from 15 to 14 per cent.

The central bank also changed the interest rate mechanism to bring transparency in Repurchase Offered (repo) rate as well as reverse repo rate as recommended by the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

Central Bank wants reforms for entrepreneurial culture

State Bank of Pakistan, Syed Salim Raza Wednesday stressed need for reforms to foster an entrepreneurial culture.
Addressing conference on Entrepreneurship 2009, organized by Memon Professional Forum at local hotel, he said there is ample research available globally, which links entrepreneurship, innovation, growth to encourage policy makers to favour policies fostering reforms.
“In environment of innovative entrepreneurship, dynamic markets, businesses can grow rapidly, ensuring that employment grows and opportunity expands.”
In under-developed states like Pakistan, there is added bonus that such environment is also most poor-friendly and conducive to social mobility, he added.
He said that World Bank 2009 survey of cost-of-doing-business in 181 countries clearly stresses need for continued reforms in critical areas in Pakistan.
He said entrepreneurship encompasses innovative ideas, implementations that change way business is conducted in market. On other extreme, term applies equally well to lowly street vendor, who seeks to set up small stall of his own to provide living to his family, funded perhaps by micro-savings or micro credit, hoping to succeed by dint of sheer hard work and ability to satisfy a small market niche.
He said both definitions of entrepreneurship encompass some common elements: ability to envision an unmet market niche or innovation that can change market; willingness to invest their time, money, effort seeking to bring that vision to life and willingness to assume all resulting risks and rewards.
“It is thus probably no coincidence that most innovation occurs in countries that encourage entrepreneurs the most.”