On Wednesday, the Monetary Policy Committee of the Central Bank of Nigeria unanimously decided to raise the interest rate on its monetary policy to 18.5%.
The bank’s MPC voted in March to raise the benchmark interest rate by 50 basis points, to 18%, according to Punch.
This information was provided in the communiqué from the third MPC meeting of the year by CBN Governor Godwin Emefiele on Wednesday.
At the conclusion of the two-day meeting in Abuja, Mr. Emefiele spoke to the media and announced that the committee had decided to maintain the asymmetrical 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 continued, “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.”
The CBN and the MPC were expected to increase lending rates at the conclusion of the Monetary Policy Committee, according to local analysts.
The MPR was raised by the apex bank six times in a row, from 11.5 percent in early last year to 18 percent in March of this year.
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