The Monetary Policy Committee of the Central Bank of Nigeria has unanimously voted to increase the benchmark interest rate (monetary policy rate) to 14% from 13%.

This was disclosed by the Governor of the CBN, Godwin Emefiele, while reading the communique of the first monetary policy committee meeting of the year, on Tuesday 19th July 2022.

According to Emefiele, the increase was the right option considering economic realities.

“The committee resolved that the most rational policy option would be to further strengthen its tightening stance in order to effectively curtail the unabated rising trend of inflation,” Emefiele said.

“Members were conscious of the fact that output growth remained fragile. However, not curtailing inflation now could erode the monetary gains achieved in improving consumer purchasing power and thus worsen the poverty level for the vulnerable populace.”

The monetary policy rate (MPR) is the main interest rate in a country or economy on which all other interest rates in that economy are based.

While the apex bank increased the MPR rate, it, however, retained other parameters.

The Central Bank during its last MPC meeting had increased the interest rate from 11.5% to 13.5% in May 2022, however with the inflation rate still spiking above 18%, the CBN has raised the rate further to 14% in a bid to combat the rising cost of goods and services.