The Monetary Policy Committee of the Central Bank of Nigeria has increased the benchmark interest rate by 100 basis points to 17.5 per cent.
Its governor, Godwin Emefiele, announced this on Tuesday while reading the communiqué of the first MPC meeting of the year.
Finding revealed that this was the fifth time the CBN would increase the interest rate despite advice from manufacturers and some key stakeholders.
According to the CBN, previous increases were beginning to yield results with the slight drop in the inflation rate recorded in December 2022.
However, the CBN stressed that there was a need to keep tightening its fiscal policy.
The CBN also said it kept the asymmetric corridor at +100/-700 basis points around the MPR.
The CBN also retained the CRR at 32.5 per cent while the liquidity ratio was kept at 30 per cent.
Earlier, the apex bank had increased the MPR from 11.5 per cent last year to 16.5 per cent across four consecutive rate hikes in 2022.
Details shortly…