*The Central Bank of Nigeria says its Monetary Policy Committee decides to retain the Monetary Policy Rate at 11.5 percent and hold other policy parameters constant in order to sustain the growth trajectory of the country’s economy

Isola Moses | ConsumerConnect

The Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has voted to retain the Monetary Policy Rate (MPR) in the West African country at 11.5 percent for the umpteenth time.

ConsumerConnect reports Mr. Godwin Emefiele, Governor of CBN, in a communiqué he read shortly after the Committee’s  282nd meeting Tuesday, November 23, 2021, in Abuja, FCT, said that the MPC also unanimously agreed to hold all other monetary policy parameters constant.

CBN Headquarters, Abuja, FCT

According to CBN, the Asymmetric Corridor was retained at +100 and -700 basis points around the MPR, the Cash Reserved Ratio (CRR) at 27.5 percent, and the Liquidity Ratio at 30 percent.

Emefiele said the parameters were retained to sustain the growth of the economy.

He stated: “This meeting MPC was gratified that its policy actions in the past had started to yield positive result through remarkable improvement in Gross Domestic Product, which stood at 4.03 percent during the third quarter of 2021.

“There was also the sixth consecutive month moderation in inflation to 15.99 percent in October.

The CBN Governor also said: “Given the level of its conviction about the efficacy of its actions on macroeconomic variables, MPC felt that tightening could increase cost of funds and constrain growth, while loosening could compound distortion in the money market.

“The MPC believes that the existing monetary policy stance has supported economic growth and recovery and should be allowed to continue for a little longer for consolidation.”

The Bankers’ Bank as well noted that consolidation would allow the MPC realise its mandate of price stability that is conducive to growth.

“The committee also feels that the old stance will enable it to carefully access the implication of unfolding global developments around policy deepening and normalisation by the advanced economies,” Emefiele further stated in the communiqué.

The CBN Chief added in view of the foregoing, the Committee decided to hold all policy parameters constant in order to support the enabling environment for sustained growth of the Nigerian economy.