Again, CBN Postpones MPC Meeting Till Further Notice

By Adedapo Adesanya

The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has once again postponed its Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) meeting amid latest moves to rebase the formula for calculating Nigeria’s inflation figures.

This will mark the second postponement this year alone as the meeting, initially set for January 27–28, was rescheduled to February 17–18 following the consumer price index (CPI) rebasing.

This won’t be the first time that the apex bank has postponed an MPC meeting under Governor Yemi Cardoso. After his appointment in September 2023, the lender delayed a meeting as investors awaited his strategy to rein in inflation and Nigeria’s monetary policy direction.

Nigeria’s inflation has risen constantly since September 2024 after previously cooling in the two preceding months.

Inflation, which is a major consideration in the MPC meeting, will change as a result of the move after the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) which reports inflation by monitoring the price changes of 740 goods and services in the CPI basket expanded the basket to include additional items with 2024 designated as the new benchmark year from 2009.

The decision to postpone the meeting may be a chance for the apex bank to understand the direction of the country’s inflation before taking any decisions after it carried out a series of hikes last year.

The CBN’s MPC increased the benchmark rate by a total of 875 basis points in its bid to combat inflation in 2024 alone.

At its final meeting of 2024, it raised the interest rate by 25 basis points, bringing it to 27.50 per cent.

There are expectations that the country’s inflation will moderate this year on further inflation targeting measures and fiscal policy alignment.