Daily Times

Apropos an editorial published in this newspaper on December 26, titled ‘Low interest rate environment’, the State Bank of Pakistan has clarified that during the meeting of the Monetary and Fiscal Coordination Board (MFCB), Governor Baqir presented the viewpoint of SBP on all the relevant issues thoroughly and without any prejudice, including the state of the economy and the monetary policy stance.

“The SBP has always been communicating its views on the state of the economy, including on monetary policy, through different avenues, including its flagship annual and quarterly reports; monetary policy statements and subsequent interactions with analysts and the business community; speeches of the Governor, press releases and social media posts,” the bank said in a statement. “The SBP maintains a high degree of transparency in its communications whereby all information made public and views expressed are available on its website: www.sbp.org.pk,” it went on to say. “Specifically, with regard to monetary policy, the Monetary Policy Statements and minutes of the meetings of the Monetary Policy Committee can be found at (https://www.sbp.org.pk/m_policy/mp-comm.asp),” it added.

“More recently, SBP has been very actively disseminating information on the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic and measures taken to mitigate these (https://www.sbp.org.pk/COVID/indexdemo.html),” the statement said. “Not only did SBP take timely measures that were appreciated by businesses and investors, it disseminated them in a timely fashion with the help of both the electronic and print media, in addition to its official social media platforms,” it added.