By Ebitonye Akpodigha
Contrary to expectations from all quarters, the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has kept all key indicators intact.
Minister of Finance, Mrs Kemi Adeosun, had urged the CBN to lower the interest rates so as to boost domestic borrowing by the government.
She had explained in an interview on a TV programme that lower interest rates would allow the government to take more local loans without increasing the burden of debt servicing.
But at the end of the two-day MPC meeting in Abuja, the CBN, through its Governor, Mr Godwin Emefiele, announced that all rates would remain unchanged.
Reading the communiqué after its September MPC meeting, Mr Emefiele said that the benchmark Monetary Policy Rate would remain at 14 percent, while the Cash Reserve Ratio and Liquidity Ratio would stay at 22.50 percent and 30 percent respectively.
When the Committee last met in July 2016, it changed the MPR from 12 percent to 14 percent.