Nigeria’s Central Bank Retains MPR At 11.5%, Other Parameters Unchanged

CBN Governor, Godwin Emefiele

The Central Bank of Nigeria’s Monetary Policy Committee (CBN’s MPC) has agreed to retain its key lending rate at 11.5 per cent, while keeping all other monetary parameters unchanged.

The decision which was taking after the MPC two-day bi-monthly meeting on Friday in Abuja, was disclosed by the Central Bank Governor (CBN), Mr Godwin Emefiele, noting that the committee decided to hold the key policy rates to give more time to implement various interventions of the bank.

The governor while reading the communique also noted that the asymmetric corridor of +100/-700 basis points around the MPR is unchanged, cash reserve ratio (CRR) would be retained at 27.5 per cent and liquidity ratio at 30 per cent, in line with analysts’ expectation.

CBN committee noted that there would be a fast improvement in the manufacturing and non-manufacturing sectors while urging the Nigerian banks to increase credit to the economy in order to improve output growth of the economy.

The continuous retainment of the benchmark interest rate at 11.5% is in line with the apex bank’s effort to improve Nigeria’s economic growth through the expansion of credit to the real sector.

The Committee in July also voted to hold all policy parameters constant, believing that it would enable the continued passage of current policy measures in supporting the growth recovery recorded in the second quarter and macro-economic stability.