The State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) has expanded its Economic Agents Network (EAN) to Karachi, Lahore and Faisalabad through dedicated teams, as part of its plan to engage stakeholders from all major sectors of the economy and gather their views on unfolding economic conditions and policy issues.
Established in May 2025, the Economic Agents Network was initially launched to improve SBP’s engagement with businesses and other economic agents. The banking regulator has now decided to expand the network to additional regions to progressively enhance coverage and interaction, according to SBP’s biannual Monetary Policy Report.
Globally, many central banks use structured systems to liaise with businesses, trade groups and other key stakeholders to obtain timely and qualitative insights that complement official data and support analysis of trends in demand, pricing, labour markets and sectoral developments.
The EAN teams systematically gather information on key aspects of economic activity, including demand and supply conditions, cost pressures, pricing behaviour, employment trends, financing conditions and business expectations across the manufacturing, agriculture and services sectors. Insights are obtained through regular, structured engagements, primarily face-to-face interviews with senior business leaders across major economic centres.
These insights are consolidated and presented to the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) and are also used to fine-tune macroeconomic projections. The network also engages with research institutes, academia, public sector entities and government institutions to ensure the information collected is well-grounded and broadly consistent. All inputs remain confidential and are reported in aggregated form, preserving respondents’ trust and institutional data integrity.
The EAN also serves as an early warning system, enabling SBP to better assess emerging risks, monitor changes in expectations and respond swiftly to rapidly evolving economic conditions.
Its role becomes particularly important during periods of heightened uncertainty, such as natural disasters. The network captures developments not yet reflected in published macroeconomic statistics, including those arising from recent floods or trade disruptions such as the Pakistan-Afghanistan border closure.
SBP has also institutionalized the use of qualitative insights to complement traditional data in support of its forward-looking monetary policy framework.
As part of efforts to strengthen the effectiveness and forward-looking orientation of monetary policymaking, SBP has expanded its informational toolkit to better capture evolving real-economy conditions. While existing surveys provide useful directional guidance, their fixed structure and periodic nature limit deeper and more nuanced assessment of underlying drivers and emerging dynamics.