Amid drop in Nigeria’s inflation, the Central Bank of Nigeria Monetary Policy Committee has retained the country’s interest rate at 27.50 percent in January, the same rate as in November last year.
The Apex bank also retained the Cash Reserve Ratio, CRR at 50 basis points and the liquidity ratio, LR, at 30 percent and the asymmetric corridor at +500/-100 basis points around the MPR; other monetary policy decisions were retained.
CBN Governor, Olayemi Cardoso revealed this in a press briefing on Thursday after 299th MPC in Abuja.
Cardoso explained that the rate pause was necessary following the recent inflation drop, which declined to 24.48 percent in January after the Consumer Price Index rebase.
“The members of the MPC unanimously agreed to retain the interest rate at 27.50 percent” he added.
Meantime, this is the first pause in interest rate hikes since Cardoso took office in September 2023.
This development comes as economists and financial experts have, in the last months, called for an interest rate pause.
The Centre for the Promotion of Private Enterprise has been championing a call for a pause in the nation’s interest rate hike.
It would be recalled that on Tuesday, National Bureau of Statistics announced that Nigeria’s headline and food inflation rate dropped to 24.48 percent and 26.08 percent in January from 34.80 percent and 39.93 percent in December last year.
