The SBP said that the Monetary Policy Committee of SBP will meet on Monday, September 20, 2021, at SBP Karachi to decide about the Monetary Policy.
It would be pertinent to mention here that SBP issued an advanced calendar of MPC meetings earlier in May 2021 through a press release (https://www.sbp.org.pk/press/2021/Pr-20-May-21.pdf) and all the meetings are being held accordingly.
In the last monetary policy announcement on July 27, 2021, the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) decided to maintain the policy rate at 7 percent.
The decision has been taken because since its last meeting in May, the MPC was encouraged by the continued domestic recovery and improved inflation outlook following the recent decline in food prices and core inflation.
In addition, consumer and business confidence have risen to multi-year highs and inflation expectations have fallen.
As a result of these positive developments, growth is projected to rise from 3.9 percent in FY21 to 4 – 5 percent this year, and average inflation to moderate to 7 – 9 percent this year from its recent higher out-turns.
Imports are expected to grow on the back of the domestic recovery and rebound in global commodity prices, albeit more moderately than in FY21.
The MPC noted that the market-based flexible exchange rate system, resilience in remittances, an improving outlook for exports, and appropriate macroeconomic policy settings should help contain the current account deficit in a sustainable range of 2 – 3 percent of GDP in FY22.
Notwithstanding this moderate current account deficit, the country’s foreign exchange reserves position is expected to continue to improve this year due to adequate availability of external financing.
Against this backdrop, the MPC felt that the uncertainty created by the ongoing fourth Covid wave in Pakistan and the global spread of new variants warrants a continued emphasis on supporting the recovery through accommodative monetary policy.
KARACHI: Workers’ remittances continued their strong trend, reaching $2.66 billion in August 2021. This is the sixth consecutive month when inflows recorded around $2.7 billion on average, and the fifteen consecutive month they have been above $2 billion, the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) said on Friday.
In terms of growth, remittances increased by 26.8 percent (y/y) in August, which is a decade high growth rate for that month. On a m/m basis, inflows were marginally lower than in July, reflecting the usual post-Eid slowdown.
Nevertheless, this seasonal decline was far less this year compared to historical trends. Cumulatively, at $5.36 billion, remittances grew by 10.4% during the first two month of this year over the same period last year.
Remittance inflows during August 2021 were mainly sourced from Saudi Arabia ($694 million), United Arab Emirates ($512 million), United Kingdom ($353 million) and the United States ($279 million).
Proactive policy measures by the Government and SBP to incentivize the use of formal channels, curtailed cross-border travel in the face of COVID-19, altruistic transfers to Pakistan amid the pandemic, and orderly foreign exchange market conditions have positively contributed towards the sustained improvement in remittance inflows since last year.
KARACHI: The liquid foreign exchange of Pakistan has come down by $125 million to $27.103 billion by the week ended September 03, 2021, State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) said on Thursday.
The foreign exchange reserves of the country were at $27.228 billion by the week ended August 27, 2021, the SBP added.
The official reserves of the SBP also fell by $123 million to $20.023 billion by the week ended September 03, 2021. The official reserves of the central bank slipped from record high of $20.146 billion a week ago.
The SBP attributed the decline in its foreign exchange reserves to external debt payments.
The foreign exchange reserves held by commercial banks slightly fell to $7.08 billion by the week ended September 03, 2021 as compared with $7.082 billion a week ago.
KARACHI: State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) on Wednesday said that as a result of numerous measures of the SBP and full support of the government, bank lending for the government’s flagship markup subsidy scheme, commonly known as Mera Pakistan Mera Ghar (MPMG), has picked up momentum.
Since the launch of the scheme, applications of Rs 154 billion under MPMG have been received by banks and banks have approved housing finance of over Rs 59 billion up till August 31, 2021. Similarly, the pace of disbursement under MPMG that was initially slow because of a number of factors, including the availability of housing units, has also picked up.
By August 31, 2021, disbursement under the scheme has reached Rs 11.5 billion, showing an increase of around Rs 3.8 billion or 49 per cent in August 2021.
On average, to date banks have approved 38 percent of the amount applied and 19 percent of the approved amount has been disbursed.
These approval and disbursement ratios have similarly risen over the past few months as banks have put in place the needed upfront investment in procedures and technology to process applications for low-cost housing.
It would be pertinent to mention here that banks disbursed amounts in different stages of construction or purchase. Thus the pace of disbursement is contingent upon the speed of construction and completion of the purchasing process.
Since the announcement of MPMG scheme last year, SBP has taken various enabling steps such as introducing standardized and simple application form; adopting an informal income assessment model; providing relaxations in prudential regulations; establishing helpdesks at all SBP field offices; and, designing a complaint portal supported by a network of focal persons of all banks across all geographical areas.
On the instructions of SBP, banks are accepting MPMG applications from over 8,000 dedicated branches across the country. Further, SBP has also allocated targets to each bank under MPMG.
An e-tracking system within each bank and a dedicated joint call center for the facilitation of the applicants have also been established. Naya Pakistan Housing Development Authority (NAPHDA) and Pakistan Banks’ Association (PBA), a representative body of banks, are fully supporting MPMG.
It is expected that with the ongoing efforts by SBP, Government, and Banks, bank finance for MPMG will gain further momentum in the days to come.
