CBN increases interest rate to 13.5%

For the first time in years, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) increased the interest rate to 13.5 percent on Tuesday.

The interest rate was raised from 11.5 percent to 13.5 percent.

The CBN Governor, Godwin Emefiele, announced this on Tuesday while addressing the reporters after the Monetary Policy Committee meeting in Abuja.

Justifying the raise, Emefiele said the MPC is suspicious “there might be an aggressive accretion of inflation”.

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To prevent the looming inflation, he said, the MPC had to increase the monetary policy rate by 150 basis points.

Meanwhile, the nation’s apex bank retained the asymmetric corridor around the MPR at +100 /-700 basis points, Cash Reserve Ratio (CRR) at 27.4 %, and Liquidity Ratio (LR) at 30%.

Details later…