CBN Holds First 2019 Monetary Policy Meeting Next Week

By Dipo Olowookere

The first Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) meeting of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) for this year will hold next week, the apex bank has said.

According to the central bank, this meeting will take place on Monday, January 21 and Tuesday, January 22, 2019.

Next week’s gathering will be the 265th, a notice issued by the central bank said.

While the Monday meeting will commence by 10am, the Tuesday event is slated for 8am, with the CBN Governor scheduled to address the media on outcome of the deliberations in the afternoon.

The notice said the MPC meeting will hold at the MPC Meeting Room, 11th Floor, Wing C, CBN Corporate Headquarters, Abuja.

Observers and analysts have said the central bank will likely not tamper with the benchmark interest rate, especially because it is coming nearly a month before the presidential election.

At the last meeting, the committee left the benchmark Monetary Policy Rate at 14 percent, while the Cash Reserve Ratio and Liquidity Ratio were retained at 22.50 percent and 30 percent respectively.