CBN maintains Benchmark Rate at 11.50% – 17 September 2021

The Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) concluded its fifth monetary policy meeting of 2021 today, maintaining all key rates. Please see below, a summary of the committee’s decisions.  
 
–          Retain MPR at 11.50%
–          Retain CRR at 27.50%
–          Retain Liquidity ratio at 30%
–          Maintain an asymmetric corridor at +100/–700 basis points around the MPR.

Key considerations by the MPC in retaining key policy rates were the nation’s positive growth, recording a Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth of +5.01% in Q2 2021, and persistent drop in headline inflation at 17.01% in August 2021.

In its effort to keep track of illicit forex trading activities, the CBN governor re-emphasized that the only recognizable FX rate is the I&E FX rate. He also confirmed investigations into AbokiFX, an online platform that tracks the value of the Naira in the parallel market, for alleged Foreign Exchange (FX) speculation and manipulation. This comes after the Naira depreciated against the U.S. Dollar, to its lowest in history, at the parallel market window, trading at ₦570.00/$1.