Economics
Pakistan Unexpectedly Cuts Benchmark Rate to 42-Year Low
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Pakistan’s central bank unexpectedly cut its benchmark interest rate to the lowest in 42 years in an attempt to spur economic growth as inflation slows in the sixth-most populous nation.
The State Bank of Pakistan lowered the discount rate for a fourth straight meeting to 7 percent from 8 percent, central bank Governor Ashraf Mahmood Wathra said Saturday in Islamabad. That’s the lowest since August 1973. Fourteen of 15 economists in a Bloomberg survey predicted a cut to 7.5 percent; one saw a reduction to 7 percent.