First meeting of MPC to take place on Jan 30

Will consider any change in benchmark interest rate for next two months

KARACHI: The first meeting of the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) will take place on January 30 to consider any change in the benchmark interest rate for the next two months, a press release from the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) said on Tuesday.

In November, parliament legislated amendments to the SBP Act, 1956, establishing an independent MPC empowered to make monetary policy and its allied decisions. Earlier, there was an advisory committee on monetary policy with the mandate to make recommendations to the board, which was entrusted with the powers to make monetary policy decisions.

MPC comprises nine members, including three members of the SBP board nominated by the board itself, three external members who will be economists and appointed by the federal government on the recommendation of the board, and three senior executives of the SBP nominated by its governor.  The governor is the chairman of the committee.

Members of the committee have now been nominated. The three members of the MPC from the board include Khawaja Iqbal Hassan, Muhammed Hidayatullah and Zafar Masud.

The federal government has appointed Dr Asad Zaman and Dr Qazi Masood Ahmed as the external members while the third position remains vacant.  The external members of the MPC have been appointed for a period of three years and shall be eligible for reappointment for another term of three years.

The governor has nominated SBP Deputy Governor (Policy) Riaz Riazuddin, SBP Deputy Governor (Financial Markets, IB &SI) Saeed Ahmad and SBP Executive Director (Financial Stability and Banking Supervision Group) Jameel Ahmed as members.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 27^th, 2016.

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