The Lahore Chamber of Commerce and Industry Friday said that 250 to 300 basis point cut in policy rate is direly needed to jumpstart the economy which is at a standstill. In a statement issued here, the LCCI President Irfan Qaiser Sheikh said that a cut of 50 to 100 basis points would not be doing be beneficial for the ailing economy. He said that it was very unfortunate that we have failed to learn any lesson from the tighter monetary policy stance adopted by the State bank of Pakistan in the yester years. Irfan Qaiser Sheikh, while appreciating the Defence Minister Ahmad Mukhtar’s stance for a drastic cut in interest rate, said that the Lahore Chamber of Commerce and Industry acknowledges the services of Ahmad Mukhtar since his tenure as Federal Commerce Minister was followed by a visible cut in markup rates. The LCCI President said that the ongoing economic scenario shows that there is hardly any time left for economic managers of the country and they all should understand well that a 50 to 100 basis point cut will be too little. Irfan said that high interest rates were causing great harm to the economy and would continue to do so unless a realist approach is adopted.
