KARACHI, Aug 31: The State Bank says it has decided to keep export refinance rate of 7.5 per cent unchanged for the second consecutive month in September. This means that export finance rate or the rate at which banks make export loans to eligible exporters will also remain unchanged at nine per cent for the second month in row. (Banks charge up to 1.5 percentage points over the export refinance rate while pricing export loans).

The stability in the benchmark six-month treasury bills yields in July-August has helped the central bank keep its export refinance rate unchanged during August and September. The weighted average yield on six-month bills serves as a benchmark for fixing export refinance rate. The SBP had last increased the refinance rate from 6.5 to 7.5 per cent for July this year. Accordingly, export finance rate had shot up from eight to nine per cent—much to the chagrin of exporters who had demanded de-linking of export finance rate with the TBs yield but the central bank ignored this demand.