By Baron Ike
Afraid of the possible negative impact on the global economy following the threat by the United States to review her trade pacts with most countries, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) on Tuesday, January 24 resolved to retain all monetary policy rates.
It did at the end of the Monetary Policy Committee(MPC) meeting where the monetary policy rate for banks and businesses was retained at 14 per cent, while that of Cash Reserve Ratio (CRR) and liquidity ratio were left at 22.5 per cent and 30m, per cent respectively.
The CRR sets the specified minimum fraction of customers’ total deposits commercial banks can hold as reserves either in raw cash or deposits with the CBN.
During the post-MPC meeting briefing in Abuja, the CBN governor, Godwin Emefiele, said the liquidity ratio was kept within the symmetric window of +200 and -500 basis points around the MPR.
Emefiele also said the economy was still in recession, adding that it was time government stepped up efforts to settle domestic indebtedness to states to help reflate the economy and aid growth.
He spoke about revamping some moribund industries that helped create jobs in the past, as a way of creating employment for teeming unemployed university graduates.