The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has for the third time in 2023 raised its benchmark lending rate to 18.5 percent in a sustained push to control inflation and ease pressure on the naira.
The apex bank made this known at the end of the Monetary Policy Committee meeting in Abuja.
The CBN opined reducing MPR was not even considered and that a hold will be counterfactual to evidence on the ground.
It also cited evidence that raising rates was reducing inflation which may have risen to as high as 32% as against 22.22%, if rates were not aggressively raised in April.
Meanwhile, the office of the Presidency has said President Muhammadu Buhari’s government should not be blamed for rising inflation in Nigeria. The presidency explained the global economic downturn was triggered by the COVID-19 pandemic and that no nation was immune to it.
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