CBN Retains MPR at 11.5% After 2-Day MPC Meeting

By Dipo Olowookere

The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) on Tuesday announced that the Monetary Policy Rate (MPR) has again been left intact at 11.5 per cent.

Governor of the CBN, Mr Godwin Emefiele, made this announcement during a briefing with reporters in Abuja after the two-day meeting of the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC).

He said during the meeting aimed to look into the monetary situations in the country, members of the group voted that it would be wise to still retain the rates at their current levels.

According to him, members of the MPC were unanimous in their votes to have the rates unchanged and monitor the impact of the various policies implemented to jerk up the economy.

Business Post reports that the committee was impressed in the growth recorded by the economy in two successive quarters; the fourth quarter of 2020 and the first quarter of 2021.

The National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) had earlier said the country recorded a 0.11 per cent growth in its gross domestic product (GDP), which pulled the nation out of a recession and in Q1 2021, the GDP posted a 0.51 per cent growth.

Members of the MPC were impressed with these growths, noting that the country was on the path to recovery after falling into an economic crisis in the third quarter of last year after the GDP slumped by 6.10 per cent and 3.62 per cent in Q1 of 2020 and Q2 of 2020 respectively.

While announcing the outcome of the MPC meeting today, Mr Emefiele said apart from leaving the benchmark interest rate at 11.5 per cent, members also voted to keep the Cash Reserve Ratio (CRR) at 27.5 per cent, the Liquidity Ratio (LR) at 30 per cent and the Asymmetric Window left at +100 and -700 basis points around the MPR.