MPC Meeting: CBN Retains Benchmark Interest Rate at 14%

By Modupe Gbadeyanka

Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) on Tuesday, July 25, 2017, voted to keep the benchmark interest rate at 14 percent.

This decision was reached at the end of its 257th Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) meeting held in Abuja.

While addressing newsmen after the meeting, CBN Governor, Mr Godwin Emefiele, disclosed that two of the eight members who attended the MPC meeting voted to have the rates reduced, but majority of the committee members voted to have retained.

Recall that at the MPC meeting of the CBN held on July 26, 2016, the committee voted to raise the MPR from 12 percent in May, 2016 to 14 percent.

But since then, the committee has refused to drop the rate despite the country’s economy swinging into crisis and calls from Nigerians, including the Finance Minister, Mrs Kemi Adeosun, to have it relaxed.