KARACHI, May 5: Exporters have asked the State Bank to link export refinance rate with weighted average yield of six months treasury bills for the last six months period instead of weighted average yield for the preceding one month. In a statement issued on Thursday, the chairman Pakistan Leather Garments Manufacturers and Exporters Association (PLGMEA) Fawad Ijaz Khan said that the export refinance rate is rising sharply during the last six months to 8 per cent due to increase in six months TB yield and consequently exporters are facing problems in export refinance.

He requested the governor SBP Dr Ishrat Husain to personally intervene. The SBP was reluctant to accept exporters demand of delinking the export refinance rate from the weighted average yield of six months TB’s.

This measure of taking six months period will result in a steady increase in export refinance rate rather than abrupt rise as it happened in a rise of 1.5 per cent from this month.

Mr Fawad said that the weighted average yield of a six month period will be less than the weighted average yield of preceding one month which will result in lower rate of export refinance for exporters.

He said that till 2002-03 the SBP was using the weighted average yield of three-month treasury bills yield for determining the export refinance rate which was linked to six month TBs yield. Later on, this period was reduced to preceding one month.