By Tony Obiechina, Abuja
The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has for the third consecutive times this year retained the lending rate at 13.5 percent.
This was the outcome of a two-day Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) meeting held at the CBN headquarters in Abuja.
While reading the communiqué at the end of the meeting on Tuesday, CBN governor, Mr Godwin Emefiele said the committee retained the lending rate to 13.5%; CRR at 22.5% and Liquidity Ratio at 30%.
Emefiele said all the eleven members of the MPC voted to retain the key lending rates.
The MPC had in March, for the first time in more than two years, adjusted interest rate downwards to 13.5 per cent from 24 percent.
The Governor had told reporters that “the MPC voted to adjust the Monetary Policy Rate (MPR) by 50 basis points from 14 to 13.5 per cent; retain the asymmetric corridor of +200/-500 around the MPR; retain CRR at 22.5 per cent and retain the liquidity ratio at 30 per cent.”
He said in arriving at the decision to adjust MPR (interest rate) downwards, “the committee was convinced that doing this will further uphold the banks’ commitment to promoting strong growth by way of encouraging credit flow to the productive sectors of the economy”.
