CBN retains lending rate at 11.5%
The Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has retained the Monetary Policy Rate at 11.5 per cent.
The CBN Governor, Godwin Emefiele, disclosed this after the committee’s two-day meeting in Abuja on Tuesday.
The apex bank also retained the Cash Reserve Ratio (CRR) and Liquidity Ratio at 27.5 per cent and 30 per cent respectively.
The CBN governor explained that members of the MPC were of the view that given that the exit of the country from recession was fragile, any decision to tighten may reverse the fragile recovery and return the country back to recession.
In the light of this, he said, the concession among the MPC members was that given that the inflation was substantially a supply side factor, there was need to continue to focus on consolidation of recovery process by taking those actions that would continue to stimulate output growth, create employment.
He added that at the same time, it must have an eye on efforts to moderate inflationary pressure using the current administrative measures being adopted by the bank in controlling monetary aggregates in the banking system.
Highlights of the Committee’s decision
- MPR retained at 11.50%
- The asymmetric corridor of +100/-700 basis points around the MPR
- CRR was retained at 27.5%
- While Liquidity Ratio was also kept at 30%
