Islamabad (Web Desk/Agencies): Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Thursday welcomed the State Bank of Pakistan’s (SBP) decision to reduce the policy rate by 2%, lowering it from 19.5% to 17.5%.
He expressed optimism that this move would stimulate exports, investment, business, agriculture, and overall economic growth in the country.
While presiding over a meeting of the federal cabinet committee, the prime minister expressed hope that the policy rate could gradually decrease to single digits, in line with the country’s inflation rate.
Speaking on the ongoing discussions with the International Monetary Fund (IMF), he noted that the negotiations were progressing smoothly.
He further highlighted that, as in the past, friendly nations had once again committed to assisting Pakistan during this challenging time. With these developments, Pakistan has now met the prerequisites to secure loans from the IMF.
“Our friendly and brotherly countries have come all the way to support us again,” he said.
He thanked the ministry of finance, other concerned departments and the ambassador of Pakistan to China who played important role in getting the support from the brotherly countries.
The prime minister stressed that after achieving the goal of macro economic stability, the government will now take measures to boost GDP growth of the country.
As regards the Israel’s continued atrocities over Palestinians, the prime minister demanded the global community to stop Israel from doing war crimes in Palestine.
Condemning the Israel’s barbarism in strong words, the prime minister said that today, the Israeli forces had killed six staff members of United Nation (UN) relief mission in Palestine while it also martyred 17 more Muslims in Gaza.