Central Bank of Nigeria raises interest rate to 18.5 per cent in face of rising inflation

The Central Bank of Nigeria’s Monetary Policy Committee MPC has jerked up the interest rate by 18.5 per cent to 20.5 per cent from 18 per cent in March.

While disclosing this on Wednesday, Governor of CBN, Godwin Emefiele, during the MPC communique presentation and Analysis, explained that the decision was arrived at in order to curtail the rising inflation in the country.

“Our actions to increase the MPR rates are potent because the inflationary pressures you see today confronting us are a global phenomenon and this started in 2022”, Emefiele noted.

TMY Newspapers recalls that in March, the policy-setting committee raised the MPR from 17.5 to 18 per cent in February to tackle inflation. But, despite the continued raising of MPR since May 2022, inflation rate of Nigeria had increased to 22.22 per cent in April 2023, based on the National Bureau of Statistics.

The MPR is the baseline interest rate in an economy on which other interest rates within that economy are built.