By Charles Ike-Okoh
TUE 23 MARCH, 2021-theGBJournal-The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) held all monetary policy parameters unchanged, an affirmation of the apex bank’s continued faith on the monetary intervention mechanism long adopted to address the imbalance in the external account and restoring macroeconomic stability.
The Central Bank Governor Godwin Emefiele, announced the MPC decision Tuesday, pointing to the dilemma of the Committee who voted 6-3 to hold the rates parameters constant. They voted to retain the Monetary Rate (MPR) at 11.5%, maintain asymmetric corridor of 100 and -700bps around the MPR, retain the CRR at 27.5% and maintain the liquidity ratio at 30%.
Emefiele said that the dilemma that confronted the MPC at the meeting was whether to continue to focus on efforts to stimulate output growth or whether to focus on reigning in inflation which at 17.33% is almost attaining the January 2017 inflation level of 18.72%. He said the MPC was also worried about the level of unemployment in the country.
The fragility of the economy despite exit from recession was also taken into consideration and the consensus was that any decision to tighten will reverse the fragile recovery and return the country back to recession.
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