Central Bank of Nigeria keeps monetary policy rate at 14 %

• Foreign reserves grow to $28.9 billion
• Economic change remains elusive, say experts

The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) yesterday retained the Monetary Policy Rate (MPR) at 14 per cent.It is the rate at which the CBN lends money to deposit money banks in the country.

According to the apex bank, the need to watch and re-assess the challenges that confronted the economy in 2016 and the opportunities for recovery in 2017 informed its decision against calls by some stakeholders for a cut in the rates to engender credit as a means of spurring national growth.

Accordingly, it maintained all the policy rates at their subsisting levels: MPR at 14 per cent; Cash Reserve Requirement (CRR) at 22.5 per cent; and Liquidity Ratio at 30.00 per cent. The bank retained the asymmetric corridor at +200 and -500 basis points around the MPR.

By Mathias Okwe.

Full story at The Nigerian Guardian.