The Monetary Policy Committee of the Central Bank of Nigeria has raised the country’s interest rate by 25 basis points to 27.50 per cent in November from 27.25 per cent in September 2024.
The Governor of CBN, Olayemi Cardoso, disclosed this during a press briefing on Tuesday after the 298th MPC meeting in Abuja.
“The Committee was unanimous in its agreement to raise the monetary policy rate by 25 basis points to 27.50 per cent,” he said.
Cardoso noted that the decision to raise the country’s MPR is to tackle inflation, which stood at 33.87 per cent in October 2024.
He also announced that the Cash Reserve Ratio was retained at 50 basis points, from 45 per cent to 50 per cent for deposit money banks and from 14 per cent to 16 per cent for merchant banks
Also, the CBN governor said the committee retains the liquidity ratio at 30 per cent and the asymmetric corridor at +500/-100 basis points around the MPR.
Similarly, Cardoso stated that the committee retained all other monetary policy decisions.
PUNCH Online reports that the monetary policy measures the benchmark interest rate of the economy.
At its September meeting, the committee raised the MPR by 50bps to 27.25 per cent, emphasising concerns over core inflation, money supply growth, fiscal deficits, and food price pressures.
Although headline inflation was trending downward at the time of the last MPC meeting, core inflation remained elevated, driven by energy costs and other structural factors.
(PUNCH)