CBN retains Nigeria’s interest at 27.50%

The Monetary Policy Committee of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has retained the country’s interest rate at 27.50 percent.

Olayemi Cardoso, the CBN governor, made this known in a press briefing on Tuesday after the 300th MPC meeting in Abuja.

“The committee unanimously agreed to retain MPR at 27.50 percent,” he stated.

Cardoso also announced that the MPC member decided to retain the Cash Reserve Ratio (CRR) at 50 basis points for commercial banks and 16% for mortgage banks, the liquidity ratio (LR) at 30%, and the asymmetric corridor at +500/-100 basis points around the MPR; other monetary policy decisions were retained.

He justified MPC’s decision to pause the rate hike on the easing of Nigeria’s inflation rate to 23.7 percent in April.

Last week the National Bureau of Statistics consumer price index showed that the country’s inflation dropped by 23.7%.

In February, the MPC retained the country’s interest rate at 27.50% as inflation cooled off.