The Central Bank of Nigeria's Monetary Policy Committee has decided to raise the benchmark interest rate, known as the monetary policy rate, to 27.25 percent. This decision was made at the committee's fifth meeting of the year at the CBN headquarters in Abuja.
The monetary policy rate serves as the baseline interest rate in the economy, and all other interest rates within the economy are based on it. The increase from the previous rate of 26.75 percent reflects an 8.5 percent rise in interest rates under the current leadership, which began a year ago.
In addition to raising the monetary policy rate, the committee also decided to maintain the asymmetric corridor around the MPR at +500 to -100 basis points. Furthermore, the Cash Reserve Ratio for deposit money banks was increased by 500 basis points to 50 percent, and for merchant banks by 200 basis points to 16 percent. The liquidity ratio was retained at 30 percent.
Despite expectations for the Central Bank of Nigeria to either maintain or lower interest rates due to two consecutive months of declining headline inflation, the decision was made to tighten monetary policy.
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