By Aduragbemi Omiyale
The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has again increased the monetary policy rate (MPR) by 0.50 per cent to 18.50 per cent.
The Governor of the CBN, Mr Godwin Emefiele, announced this interest rate hike on Wednesday while addressing newsmen in Abuja.
He informed journalists after the two-day monetary policy committee (MPC) meeting today that most members of the team agreed to raise the benchmark interest rate to curb inflation.
According to him, research conducted showed that the actions taken by the MPC to jerk up the rate are yielding results, though not as many Nigerians would have expected.
Mr Emefiele said if the MPC had not taken any action to increase the MPR, inflation would have risen above 30 per cent.
The National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said recently that inflation rose by 22.22 per cent in April 2023 from 22.04 per cent in March 2023.
He stated that members of the committee agreed to leave the Cash Credit Ratio (CRR) at 32.5 per cent and the Liquidity Ratio at 30.0 per cent.
