Ex-CBN director urges MPC on fiscal policies to tackle inflation

A financial expert, Dr Titus Okunronmu, has advised the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to make concerted efforts to deploy efficient fiscal policies to tackle the inflation rate.

Okunronmu, also a former CBN director, gave the advice in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Monday in Ota, Ogun, ahead of the two-day Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) Meeting.

NAN reports that the MPC will begin a two-day meeting today to decide on the key parameters to tightening the economy in Abuja.
Nigeria’s inflation rate jumped to 16.82 per cent in April from 15.92 per cent in March, the highest in eight months, according to the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS).

The former CBN director emphasised the need for the apex bank to deploy efficient fiscal policies with harmonisation of monetary policies to reduce the continuous inflation rates to revamp the economy.

He noted that if the Federal Government budget was in deficit, being financed by some banking system, the inflation rate was inevitable.

Okorunmon said that the government needed to borrow to finance its deficit budget since it did not have sufficient funds to finance its annual budget.

“There is the need for MPC to do the needful by evolving an efficient fiscal policy with monetary policy since they have the data about what is happening in the economy.

“The MPC needs objectivity to proffer the right policy to tackle the problems of the ailing economy and the rising nation’s inflation rate,” he said.

Okunronmu said that borrowing to finance the country’s annual budget depended on whether the funds were used to finance capital projects or recurrent expenditures.

The former CBN director appealed to Federal Government to Intensify efforts so that the borrowed funds would not be inappropriate.