The Central Bank of Nigeria’s (CBN’s) Monetary Policy Committee members on Tuesday voted to increase the monetary policy rate (MPR) or benchmark interest rate to 14% from 13% in its sustained efforts to tame the rising inflation rate in the county.
The Governor of the CBN, Godwin Emefiele, gave this hint while addressing journalists at the end of the committee’s meeting at the CBN headquarters in Abuja.
Emefiele expressed optimism that the benchmark interest rate hike would help in addressing Nigeria’s rising inflation.
He said the committee members voted to hike the rate by 100 basis points and retain the asymmetric corridor at +100 and -700 basis points around the MPR and liquidity ratio at 30 percent.
The Tuesday jacking up of the benchmark interest rate by the committee was the second time this year. The MPC at its last meeting in May 2022 had increased the interest rate from 11.5% to 13%.
But then, despite the monetary policy measures to curb the rising general price level in the economy, the inflation rate has continued to surge over the months.
For instance, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), had last Friday reported that Nigeria’s inflation rate increased to over 5-year high of 18.6% in June 2022, from 17.71% recorded in the previous month,
The Bureau attributed the surge largely to the surge in energy prices and transportation costs.
