Ebun Francis|
The monetary policy committee (MPC) of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has retained the monetary policy rate, which determines interest rate, at 14%, for the 15th consecutive time.
Nigeria’s Central Bank governor, Godwin Emefiele made the disclosure on Tuesday at the end of the MPC meeting.
According to Emefiele, all members of the committee voted in support of retaining rates.
The committee also retained the Cash Reserves Ratio at 22.5 per cent, Liquidity Ratio at 30 per cent; and the Asymmetric Window which was at +200 and -500 basis points around the MPR.
Emefiele said, “The committee continued recovery in output growth of the economy. output growth is expected to expand further. Output for growth remains fragile on the late implementation of the 2018 budget and after effects of flooding.
According to the governor, credit to government grew by 33.7% against 7.4% benchmark.
“The near term risk to inflation remains campaign-related spending, the after-effect of flooding and insecurity in some of the food producing parts of the country,” he said.
“The outlook for inflation to increase in the near term before it gradually decreases by mid-year.”