Ahsan Mushtaq

The State Bank of Pakistan has decided to keep the policy rate unchanged at 7% with a view to support economic recovery. The decision was taken at a meeting of the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) on Friday, following which a detailed statement was issued by the central bank. The committee noted that the "current stance of monetary policy remains appropriate to support economic recovery while keeping inflation expectations well-anchored and maintaining financial stability". SBP said that the committee reviewed the recent rise in inflation and concluded it was "primarily driven by supply side factors and saw little signs of demand led inflation". The central bank committee expects that as this "temporary increase in inflation", that is a by-product of "administered prices" subsides, "inflation should fall to the 5-7% target range over the medium-term". It said that in the absence of "unforeseen developments", it is expected the

Pakistani celebrities are coming forth to stress on the significance of social distancing and wearing protective gear as the nation battles the third wave of the coronavirus. The Ministry of National Health Services issued a video message by acclaimed stars, Mahira Khan, Adeel Hussain, Bilal Abbas and Iqra Aziz who are pushing fans to build up the safety measures to curtail the spread of the virus. “Let’s defeat corona together,” said the Humsafar actor in the video posted on Twitter. Let us vow to use face masks and sanitize our hands regularly,” Hussain and Abbas tell fans. “Maintain a six feet distance with each other and avoid going to crowded places,” urges Aziz.   In the last 24 hours, the country lost 42 people to the deadly virus, taking the nationwide death tally to 13,799. So far, 579,760 have recovered from the coronavirus after testing positive. The surge in the positivity cases has alarm bells ringing in the country, as a day earlier Pakistan positivity rate stood clo