Recently, the Monetary Policy Committee of the Central Bank of Nigeria, on Wednesday, unanimously voted to increase its monetary policy interest rates to 18.5 per cent.
According to the report in March, the MPC of the bank voted for an increament of the benchmark interest rate by 50 basis points to 18 per cent.
The CBN Governor, Godwin Emefiele, disclosed this while reading the communiqué of the third MPC meeting of the year on Wednesday.
While addressing journalists at the end of the two-day meeting in Abuja, Mr Emefiele, said that the committee has voted to keep the asymmetric corridor at +100 and -700 basis points around the MPR.
Justifying the rising inflation rate, the MPC blamed the high energy cost and challenges around the supply chain, among others, which are beyond the reach of the CBN.
He expressed, “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.”
However, analysts in the country went further to predict that CBN and MPC might raise the lending rates at the end of the Monetary Policy Committee.
While the apex bank increased the MPR from 11.5 per cent earlier last year to 18 per cent in March this year across six consecutive rate hikes.
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