The Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Tuesday voted to increase the benchmark interest rate by 50 basis points to 18. percent from
17.5 per cent.
CBN Governor, Godwin Emefiele, who disclosed this while reading the communiqué of the second MPC meeting, said the aim was to keep inflation rate under control.
Emefiele also said the committee voted to keep the asymmetric corridor at +100 and -500 basis points around the MPR.
The latest release from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) showed that the Nigeria’s inflation rate rose to 21.91 percent in February 2023 from 21.82 in January, fueled by high cost of energy, food and Naira scarcity.
Data from the NBS also revealed that Nigeria’s annual Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth rate slowed to 3.10 per cent in 2022, compared to 3.40 per cent in 2021.