The State Bank is preparing for a big meeting to decide on its monetary policy.
This time, they’re deciding without considering the government’s budget plans or talking with the IMF about getting more money. People are interested because the government wants to help regular folks, but some of their ideas might make things more expensive.
Experts think the State Bank will be careful about lowering interest rates too much, even though the difference between how much prices are going up (about 11.8%) and the current interest rate (22%) is big.
Most people in a survey think the rates will go down, but they don’t all agree on how much. The financial market has already started reacting to the possibility of a rate cut, with some interest rates going down.
Some experts think the State Bank doesn’t know enough about what’s going on with the budget to make decisions about interest rates. They think the bank might play it safe and keep rates the same for now. Others think the rates could go down by a few percentage points in the coming years.
People are also talking about how much they think the Pakistani rupee might be worth in the future and whether Pakistan will get more money from the IMF.