Controlling inflation top priority: SBP governor

ISLAMABAD: The State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) Governor Tariq Bajwa said that controlling inflation was the top most priority of the bank, ARY News reported on Wednesday.

In an interview with Bloomberg, Tariq Bajwa said that the inflation would decrease in the country during the next fiscal year as the positive economic policies, adopted by the current government would start bearing fruit.

He said that SBP was ready to use monetary policy tools and added that the band had taken strict monitory measures last year. The governor said that consumer price growth would  be anchored by low food inflation.

Tariq Bajwa said, ” Inflation accelerated to 8.2 percent in February, the highest since 2014, the central bank doesn’t see average inflation for next year breaching double digits.”

He further said, “I will not be surprised if the inflation rate for the next year continues to be more or less the same, and starts coming down end of next fiscal year.”

He said that interest rate was hiked by 4.5 per cent during the past 16 months.

Read More: SBP records 22.56pct fall in current account deficit in eight months

Earlier, the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) on March 16, had recorded prominent 22.56 percent decline in current account deficit of the country in last eight months.

The central bank had said the current account deficit stood at 8.84 billion dollar in last eight months of the following financial year. Last year during this time period, the current account deficit was 11.42 billion dollar.