By Dipo Olowookere
The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) on Tuesday said the benchmark interest rate, which is measured by the monetary policy rate (MPR) has been retained at 11.5 per cent.
The apex bank made this disclosure at the conclusion of the two-day monetary policy committee (MPC) meeting held in Abuja.
Reading the communiqué, the Governor of the CBN, Mr Godwin Emefiele, said the committee, at the gathering, felt it was the best decision for the national interest rate should be left at the current level.
He said this was to allow the different measures put in place by the fiscal and monetary authorities to achieve the needed results and quicken the exit of Nigeria from recession.
Last Saturday, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), said the nation’s gross domestic product (GDP) contracted by 3.62 per cent in the third quarter of 2020 and because of the 6.10 per cent decline in GDP in the second quarter of the year, the country officially entered a recession.
While addressing newsmen today after the MPC meeting, Mr Emefiele said the economic crisis has bottomed out because of the contraction in Q3 was lower than Q2, noting that tightening and loosening the rate could cause further issues in the economy.
He said it was because of this, the committee felt it was in the best interest of Nigeria that the various rates be left at their previous levels.
In view of this, he announced that the committee agreed to leave the MPR at 11.5 per cent, retained the asymmetric corridor to +100 and -700 around the MPR, kept the Cash Reserve Ratio (CRR) at 27.5 per cent and left the Liquidity Ratio (LR) at 30.0 per cent.
Adedapo Adesanya