The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Monetary Policy Committee has raised the interest rate by 50 basis points, from 26.25% to 26.75% amid surging inflation.
CBN Governor, Olayemi Cardoso, announced this at the end of the apex bank’s 296th MPC meeting held in Abuja on Tuesday, July 23.
The MPC adjusted the asymmetric corridor around the MPR from +100 to -300 to +500 to -100 basis points.
The MPC also retained the Cash Reserve Ratio (CRR) of deposit money banks at 45% and merchant banks at 14% and retained the Liquidity Ratio at 30%.
According to him, the decision to further increase the interest rate is to tackle the country’s rising core inflation and food inflation which stood at 34.19 per cent and 40.87 per cent, respectively in June.
He said members of the MPC are not oblivious of the need to address the rising prices of food in Nigeria, necessitating the interest rate hike.
He said despite the June 2024 uptick in inflation, prices are expected to moderate in the near term as monetary policy gaining further traction in addition to further measurers by the fiscal authority to address food inflation.
