As the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) prepares for its July meeting, some financial experts have called for moderation in its policy decisions.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the CBN has announced that the 292nd meeting of the MPC will hold on Monday and Tuesday, to be chaired by Mr Folashodun Shonubi, the Acting Governor of the CBN.
This will be the fourth MPC meeting of 2023, and the first in about nine years to be chaired by someone other than the suspended CBN Governor, Godwin Emefiele.
At the last MPC meeting in May, Emefiele had announced the committee’s decision to raise the Monetary Policy Rate (MPR) for a seventh consecutive time, from 18 per cent to 18.5 per cent.
That is the highest since the MPR was established in 2006.
The CBN started its monetary policy tightening in May 2022, when the MPR, which is the benchmark interest rate, was increased from 11.5 per cent to 13 per cent.
A financial expert, Prof Uche Uwaleke, told NAN that the decision of the MPC in the July meeting will be influenced by the rising inflation expectations due largely to the sudden removal of fuel subsidy.
Uwaleke, a Professor of Capital Market at the Nasarawa State University, Keffi, said that pressure on the naira and exchange rate volatility occasioned by the recent Naira float would also influence the MPC decision.
