JUST IN: CBN Increases Interest Rate by 0.50% to 26.75%

By Dipo Olowookere

The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has further increased the Monetary Policy Rate (MPR) by 50 basis points (0.50 per cent) to 26.75 per cent from 26.25 per cent.

The Governor of the CBN, Mr Yemi Cardoso, announced the rate hike on Tuesday while speaking with journalists in Abuja after the end of the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) meeting, which started on Monday.

He explained that the committee decided to slow down the rate of the hike during deliberations, noting that it was just to monitor how the economy reacts to this latest development.

The central bank chief said the benchmark rate was slightly raised after the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) disclosed recently that the inflation rate in June 2024 went up to 34.19 per cent amid soaring prices of food prices across the country. He expressed optimism that inflation should begin to cool off very soon.

However, he noted that members of the team agreed to retain the other rates, leaving the asymmetric corridor around the MPR at +100 to -300 basis points, the liquidity ratio at 30 per cent, and the Cash Reserve Ratio (CRR) at 45 per cent for commercial banks and the CRR of merchant banks at 14 per cent.