Entrepreneurs dance to SBP’s beat

The Pakistani business community has appreciated and pleased with the new monetary policy 2012 as announced by State Bank of Pakistan.
Talking to a private news channel, Chairman Lahore Chamber of Commerce and Industries Irfan Qaiser Sheikh said that Pakistani industry will get revival after SBP’s announcement regarding new interest rate as industrial sector is in standstill since long due to high interest rate in the country and business community was demanding of the government to decrease mark up rate keeping in view national and international economy.
“There will be now betterment in industrial growth. International and local investors will now invest in the country and new jobs will be created which ultimately cast good impact on the national economy”, he added.
Chairman A K D group Aqeel Karim said that new SBP’s step will help increase the industrial growth and new investments in the country. “It is a good step of the government.In coming days, our economy will perform better due to lessening of mark up rate”, he said.
Chairman APTMA Mohsin Aziz said that it is good step which will help attract investments and will boost industrial sector and business activities in the country.
POLICY RATE CUT BY 150 BASIS POINTS: The business community here on Friday welcomed the government decision of reducing the mark up rate by 150 basis points.
The State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) has announced in its monetary policy to reduce the mark-up rate by 1.5 per cent from 12 percent to 10.50 per cent.
“It is great news for the businessmen of the country as the reduction of bank policy rate by 1.5 per cent would revive the business activities, overcome low-growth scenario and encourage new investments which would ultimately improve the economic growth of the country”, President of Islamabad Chamber of Commerce and Industry , Yassar Sakhi Butt told APP on Friday.
He said that the present decision would also reduce the non-performing loans as the business community would able to pay back their outstanding dues on time.
However, Reduction in government’s borrowing from banks is a must for expediting investment process in the industrial sector, he added. The ICCI President said cut in markup rates would not only strengthen economic activities but would also go a long way in controlling stagflation that was giving birth to many economic problems besides jacking up the graph of unemployment.
He said that the availability of cheaper money to the business doing would bring down the cost of business in the country as the trade and industry were already facing problems due to high cost of energy and its crisis.
Yassar Sakhi Butt said that reduction in bank mark-up rate could encourage fresh investment in the industry which had declined to 13.4 percent in FY11, thus reduction in markup rate would increase employment and exports of the country in long-term.
Zaheer Ahmad, a businessman told APP that the decision of SBP of cutting the policy rate would create vacuum for new investment as the loan will be available at low rate which was highly desired by the business community.
“With the increase of investment, the economic activity will automatically increase by creating more employment opportunities in the country”, he remarked. Besides, the government will collect more revenues in term of taxes