CBN Announces Interest Rate Increase

The Central Bank of Nigeria’s Monetary Police Committee has increased the country’s interest rate by 25 basis points to 27.50 per cent in November from 27.25 per cent in September 2024.

The Governor of CBN, Olayemi Cardoso, made this known during a press briefing on Tuesday after the 298th MPC meeting in Abuja.

“The Committee was unanimous in its agreement to raise the monetary policy rate by 25 basis points to 27.50 percent,” he said.

Cardoso noted that the decision to raise the country’s Monetary Policy Rate is to tackle inflation, which stood at 33.87 percent in October 2024.

He also disclosed that the Cash Reserve Ratio was retained at 50 basis points, from 45 percent to 50 percent for deposit money banks and from 14 percent to 16 percent for merchant banks.

Also, the CBN governor said the committee retains the liquidity ratio at 30 percent and the asymmetric corridor at +500/-100 basis points around the MPR.

Similarly, Cardoso stated that the committee retained all other monetary policy decisions.

At its September meeting, the committee raised the MPR by 50bps to 27.25 percent, emphasizing concerns over core inflation, money supply growth, fiscal deficits, and food price pressures.

Although headline inflation was trending downward at the time of the last MPC meeting, core inflation remained elevated, driven by energy costs and other structural factors.