KARACHI, Sept 30: Banks will continue to offer export finance to eligible exporters at a markup of 3 per cent in October as the State Bank has left unchanged its export refinance rate at 1.5 per cent.

The central bank on Tuesday told all banks through a circular that it has decided to keep unchanged its export refinance rate at 1.5 per cent for the next month. The circular said banks could charge a maximum spread of 1.5 per cent on their financing to the eligible exporters under export finance scheme. It said that the same markup structure would apply on export financing extended under part B of the scheme for financing locally manufactured machinery. This means that the banks would offer export financing to those availing of this scheme at a maximum rate of 3 per cent whereas the SBP would provide them funds for this purpose at 1.5 per cent.

What has helped the central bank keep export refinance rate at the previous level is stability in treasury bills yield to which this rate has been tagged on the insistence of the IMF.