By Emmanuel Nduka
The Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) in what appears to be a move targeted at curbing the rising rate of inflation in the country and spur economic growth, on Tuesday voted unanimously to raise the benchmark interest rate to 13 percent after two years of expansionary monetary policy.
Governor of the CBN, Godwin Emefiele, disclosed this while reading the communique of the third MPC meeting of the year.
The apex bank has now raised the rate which had been at 11.5 percent since September 2020, in a bid to initiate recovery from the recession recorded due to Covid-19 after inflation rate rose above 16 percent.
While MPR was raised to 13 percent, the asymmetric corridor of +100/-700 basis points around the MPR was retained. CRR was retained at 27.5 percent, while Liquidity Ratio was also kept at 30 percent.
