KARACHI: The Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) of the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) Friday decided to reduce the policy rate by 100 basis points to 8 percent. The interest rate has been reduced keeping in view the coronavirus situation in the country. The SBP has reduced the interest rate by 5.25 percent since March 17. Earlier, the SBP announced that it will provide loans to health facilities on 3% markup to counter coronavirus outbreak. The SBP declared that inflation rate will come down in the coming months while the prices of petroleum products will also decrease. Local businesses and exporters have lately been protesting at high borrowing costs, which they said was harming investment. - TLTP