The newly constituted Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) of the Central Bank of Nigeria which admitted five new members last month has unanimously decided to leave the benchmark interest rate at 14 percent, central bank Governor Godwin Emefiele announced at a press conference in the capital, Abuja on Wednesday.
The MPC meeting in January was cancelled due to an inability to form a quorum after several departures reduced it to just five out of 12 members. The decision to benchmark the interest rate at 14% was in line with the position of many analysts.
The International Monetary Fund forecast Nigeria’s economy will grow 2.1 percent this year as oil production remains stable and supply of foreign currency needed to import factory inputs improves.
The Nigerian economy has shown improvement with inflation decelerated for a 13th consecutive month in February to 14.3 percent but remained above the regulator’s target of 6 percent to 9 percent.
