The Monetary Policy Committee of the Central Bank of Nigeria have voted to increase the benchmark interest rate by 100 basis points to 16.5 per cent, the highest since 2001.
The CBN Governor, Godwin Emefiele, disclosed this while reading the communique of the last MPC meeting of the year on Tuesday.
The MPC claimed that the tightening would curb a higher rate of inflation and restore investors’ confidence.
According to a report by Nairametrics, the highlights of the MPC meeting included: increase Monetary Policy Rate by 100 basis points to 16.5 per cent; the asymmetric corridor of +100/-700 basis points around the MPR was retained; the CRR was retained at 32.5 per cent; while the Liquidity Ratio was also kept at 30 per cent.
Earlier in the year, the apex bank had increased the MPR from 11.5 per to 15.5 per cent across three consecutive rate hikes, with inflation rate rising to 21.09 per cent in October from 20.77 per cent in the previous month.
