Seven out of nine members of the Central Bank of Nigeria’s (CBN) monetary policy committee (MPC) on Tuesday voted to leave the monetary policy rate unchanged at 14 percent on the back that tightening of the MPR could help keep investors in the country.
Godwin Emefiele, the CBN governor announced the decision of the committee at the end of a two-day meeting held at the apex bank’s headquarters in Abuja, adding that seven members agreed to maintain the current monetary policy stance while others wanted rates to be increased.
He said apart from the MPR, which was retained at 14 percent, the committee also retained the cash reserves ratio at 22.5 percent.
The liquidity ratio was left at 30 percent; and the asymmetric window was left at +200 and -500 basis points around the MPR.
Reactions have begun to trail the MPC’s decision from investment analysts. “The MPC’s decision to retain rates is unsurprising as we anticipated this in our H2-18 Outlook report. Clearly, global uncertainties, increased fiscal and election spending are key concerns for the MPC. We do not expect any knee-jack reaction from the market,” says United capital analysts.
