May 25 (Lagos) - All except one member of the Monetary Policy Committee of the Central Bank of Nigeria chose to raise the key benchmark lending rate by 50 basis points to 18.5% in a bid to fight inflation which remains sharply above the key benchmark lending rate.
Central Banks around the world have been raising interest rates after the US federal Reserve started doing so last year.
Nigeria's apex bank has arguably been slow to catch up and as a result inflation has already reached mid-twenty percent levels. This delay also caused weakness in the Naira against major currencies.
Over the past few months we have been seeing t-bill auctions with stop rates varying by huge margins in a matter of 2 weeks. These levels are sharply below the key benchmark rate causing volatility and ad-hoc decisions as investors cannot keep up with inflation.
reporting for easykobo.com on Thursday, May 25 2022 from Lagos, Nigeria
