Rising inflation, foreign exchange volatility, and stunted economic growth are key issues that will be discussed at the meeting of the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), which begins tomorrow, analysts have said.
Tomorrow’s meeting of the MPC, the second this year, is coming at a time when oil prices are hovering around $43 per barrel, with inflation figures for February put at 11.4 per cent year-on-year – an increase from the 9.6 per cent it stood in January – and a yawning gap between the official and parallel foreign exchange market rates.
The MPC had at its last (January) meeting in Abuja, decided to retain the Monetary Policy Rate(MPR) at 11.0 per cent; cash reserve ratio (CRR) at 20.0 per cent; liquidity Ratio at 30 per cent; and the asymmetric corridor at +200 basis points and -700 basis points.