July 14, 2002	Sunday	Jamadi-ul-Awwal 3, 1423

KARACHI, July 13: The inter-bank market had to borrow Rs13 billion overnight from the State Bank discount window for the third straight day on Saturday.

Bankers said the SBP injection of Rs18.10 billion into the market on Friday was too little to satiate the cash-strapped banks that had to discount by Rs11.6 billion the same day and by Rs13 billion on Saturday.

The market liquidity had dried up on Thursday when the State Bank had siphoned off Rs66 billion from the system against an actual surplus of slightly more than Rs30 billion. The result was that the banks had to make an overnight borrowing of Rs31.5 billion from the SBP discount window the same day.

Bankers said overnight call rates remained pegged around 8.90-8.95 per cent against the discount rate of 9 per cent because of heavy discounting on Saturday.

They said the SBP may inject some liquidity into the system on Monday to ease off the crisis.