The Monetary Policy Committe of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has raised the Monetary Policy Rate (MPR), which measures interest rate, from 18 percent to 18.5 percent.
This was disclosed by the CBN Governor, Godwin Emefiele while reading the communiqué of the third MPC meeting of the year on Wednesday at the CBN headquarters in Abuja.
He said the committee voted to keep the asymmetric corridor at +100 and -700 basis points around the MPR.
Emefiele explained that the decision is to curtail the rising inflation in Nigeria.
“Our actions to increase the MPR rates are potent because the inflationary pressures you see today confronting us are a global phenomenon and this started in 2022”, he stated.
He added, “The current trend in price development would continue to be monitored by the bank with greater collaboration with fiscal authority to address the drivers of inflation.”
This is the third consecutive time the apex bank has raised the benchmark rate this year.
MPC had in March voted to raise the benchmark interest rate by 50 basis points to 18 per cent, in a bid to tame inflation. Earlier last year, MPR was 11.5%.
However, last week, Nigeria’s inflation rate rose to 22.22 percent amid the surge in food prices, according to data from the National Bureau of Statistics. This is highest inflation rate since 2009, the data showed.
The monetary policy rate (MPR) is the baseline interest rate in an economy, every other interest rate used within an economy is built on it.
Ifunanya Ikueze is an Engineer, Safety Professional, Writer, Investor, Entrepreneur and Educator.
