…AS MPC RETAINS MONETARY POLICY RATE AT 11.5%, CRR, LIQUIDITY RATIO AT 37.5 % AND 30%, RESPECTIVELY
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Nigeria’s economy has remained relatively weak, inconsiderate of its exit from recession in the first quarter of this year, the Central Bank Governor, Mr. Godwin Emefiele, has alarmed.
Emefiele who raised the concern while briefing journalists at the end of the two-day Monetary Policy Committee meeting, said the inference was drawn from the fact that the growth posted by the economy was still fragile as it was far below Nigeria’s population growth rate estimated at about 3.5 per cent.
Following the trend, he said the MPC called on both the fiscal and monetary authorities to implement measures with capacity to prop the economic recovery, noting the need to address the ravaging insecurity in the country to enable farmers boost agric production.
Emefiele also underlined the need for government’s measures to include attraction of investments, boosting manufacturing and agric productivity and supporting the local production of food as well as addressing infrastructural deficits.
At the MPC meeting, he said the committee retained the Monetary Policy Rate at 11.5 per cent while the Cash Reserve Ratio and Liquidity Ratio remain at 37.5 per cent and 30 per cent, respectively.
It would be recalled that the National Bureau of Statistics had, in its Q1 2021 GDP report, announced that the country had exited recession, noting that “the Q1 2021 growth rate was slower than the 1.87 per cent growth rate recorded in Q1 2020 but higher than 0.11 per cent recorded in Q4 2020.”
“The Nigerian economy had grown 0.11 per cent in the fourth quarter of 2020, from the 6.11 percent contraction in the third quarter,” NBS said, expressing delight at the development./ SHARE THIS