The Monetary Policy Committee of the Central Bank of Nigeria has further increased the lending rate in Africa’s largest economy by 2.0 percent or 200 basis points, from 22.75 percent in February to 24.75 percent.
There is a change in the asymmetric corridor from +100/-700 t0 +100/-300 around the MPR.
The decision was taken at the second MPC meeting of the year chaired by Olayemi Cardoso, governor of CBN in Abuja. The two-day meeting which commenced on Monday came to a close today.
The cash reserve ratio of banks is however retained at 45 percent while the liquidity ratio remains at 30 percent.
The MPC adjusted the CRR of Merchant banks from 10 percent to 14 percent.
“The key thing for us is to focus on managing the inflation rate.
“Our expectation is that by the end of May inflation will begin to moderate,” Cardoso stated.
According to him, the MPC makes decisions based on economic variables.
Stressing that while the MPC is concerned about the continuous tightening of interest rate as a way of managing inflation, the CBN governor assured that once the economy stabilises there will be no need to increase interest rates.
