‘To support economic recovery’ — CBN retains benchmark interest rate at 11.5%

The monetary policy committee of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has voted to retain the monetary policy rate (MPR), which measures interest rate, at 11.5 percent.

The monetary policy rate (MPR) is the baseline interest rate in an economy, every other interest rate used within an economy is built on the MPR.

Addressing journalists on Tuesday after the committee’s two-day meeting at the CBN headquarters in Abuja, Godwin Emefiele, governor of the apex bank, said the committee members unanimously retained key rates.

According to Emefiele, the committee voted to maintain the key lending rate at 11.5 percent, with the asymmetric corridor of +100 and -700 basis points around the MPR and liquidity ratio at 30 percent.

“The existing monetary stance is supposedly growth recovery and should be allowed to continue for a little longer for consolidation to achieve the MPC mandate of conducive growth,” Emefiele said.

He said the committee commended the output growth in the last two quarters and urged the apex bank to continue to sustain current efforts to revamp the economy through various interventions.

The committee also reiterated the need to remain cautious and called on the fiscal authority to sustain interventions that would normalise the country’s economy in the short to medium term.