By Adedapo Adesanya
The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has announced that its 274th meeting of the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) will hold on Monday, July 20, 2020.
The MPC meeting is slated to take place at the 11th Floor, Wing C of the CBN Corporate Headquarters located in Abuja from 8 am.
The MPC is a committee of experts of the CBN responsible for formulating monetary and credit policies towards realising the mandate of the apex bank of financial system stability.
In line with sub-section 2 (d) and (e) of the CBN Act the MPC, which is chaired by the Governor of the CBN, has four Deputy Governors of the apex bank as members.
Other members include two members of the board of directors of the bank and three others.
With the recent headwinds faced by the naira, the central bank recently devalued the domestic currency for the second time this year against the dollar by 5.5 per cent to N381 from N361. Earlier in the year, it adjusted the value of the Naira to N360 from N306.
Earlier today, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said Nigeria’s inflation rose for the 26th consecutive month, hitting 12.56 per cent in June 2020 from 12.40 per cent in May 2020.
At its last meeting, the benchmark interest rate was reduced to 12.5 per cent from 13.5 per cent and with inflation now above the Monetary Policy Rate (MPR), observers will be expecting to see the next line of action by the apex bank.
Other parameters such as the Cash Reserve Ratio (CRR) remained at 27.5 per month while the liquidity ratio was pegged at 30 per cent.
Modupe Gbadeyanka