By Dipo Olowookere
Today, Monday, January 23, 2017, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) will commence its Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) meeting in the country’s capital city, Abuja.
As the committee goes into the meeting, it is expected to focus on the state of the Nigerian economy, and decide on key monetary policy parameters.
At the end of the 2-day meeting, observers will expect the committee to consider reviewing the Monetary Policy Rate (MPR) downward.
It is important to note that in the past, the MPC had said it would be wrong for it to reduce the rates because it feels that won’t help revamp Nigeria’s dwindling economy in anyway; though the Finance Minister, Mrs Kemi Adeosun, shares a separate view on this.
However, whatever decisions the committee take, they would be made public at the end of the meeting on Tuesday by the CBN Governor, Mr Godwin Emefiele.
But it is also important to emphasise that going into the meeting today, the rates remains at 14 percent with an inflation rate of 18.55 percent as at December 2016.
The IMF estimated Gross Domestic Product (GDP) contraction in Nigeria in 2016 at 1.5 percent, but to grow by 0.8 percent in 2017.
Adedapo Adesanya