CBN raises interest rate to 17.5 percent

The Monetary Policy Committee of the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN has voted to increase the benchmark interest rate by 100 basis points to 17.5 percent.

The CBN Governor, Godwin Emefiele, disclosed this while reading the communiqué of the first MPC meeting of the year on Tuesday.

This is the fifth time the Apex bank would increase the interest rate despite advice from manufacturers and some key stakeholders.

The Apex bank said previous increases were; beginning to yield results with the slight drop in the inflation rate recorded in December 2022.

However, the apex bank stressed that there was a need to keep tightening its fiscal policy.

The CBN keeps the asymmetric corridor at +100/-700 basis points around the MPR.

Read Also: Cash swap: CBN bars Abuja, Lagos PoS operators

The CBN also retained the CRR at 32.5 percent while the liquidity ratio was kept at 30 percent.

The apex bank had increased the MPR from 11.5 percent earlier last year to 16.5 percent across four consecutive rate hikes in 2022.