CBN Keeps Interest Rate At 14%
The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) kept its main interest rate at 14 percent on Wednesday in an attempt to curb inflation especially in food prices, Governor Godwin Emefiele said.
The economy emerged from its first recession in 25 years in 2017 but growth remains fragile, although higher oil prices and debt sales over the last few months have helped the continent’s biggest crude producer to accrue billions of dollars in foreign reserves.
Emefiele said the nine committee members at the first rate-setting meeting of the year voted unanimously to hold the rate at a record high of 14 percent, where it has been since July 2016 to support the naira and help curb inflation.
“The committee noted that at 14 percent the policy rate was tight enough to rein in current inflationary pressures,” he said.
Most analysts polled by Reuters had expected rates to be kept on hold with cuts seen later this year.