LAHORE: The Lahore Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI) has expressed concerns over the increase in the key policy rate, saying it would neutralise all the efforts aimed at bringing down the cost of doing business, a statement said.

LCCI president Mian Nauman Kabir, senior vice president Mian Rehman Aziz Chan and vice president Haris Ateeq said that the policy rate was already high and there was a need to reduce it due to high cost of doing business in the post Covid-19 scenario.

The hike in the policy rate has brought the borrowing cost to the highest level in the last 20 months, they said, adding: “How our industry can compete with the countries where the policy rate is zero.”

They feared that the high policy rate would halt industrial expansion, adding that the policy rate should be brought down to at least 5 per cent to give a boost to the economic activities.

It is crystal clear that high markup rate would affect the industrialisation process, the LCCI office-bearers said, adding that all the major economies have either curtailed or are in the process of reducing high interest rates.

The State Bank of Pakistan should understand that its rigid stance is causing huge losses to the economy. They urged the SBP to make at least 400 basis points cut in the markup rates to inject energy in the industrial sector.

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