CBN Postpones Policy Meeting Amidst Rising Inflation

For the second time in two months, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has postponed the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) meeting where key monetary decisions are expected to be decided.

This is happening amidst the rising inflation in the country with stakeholders expecting the MPC meeting to come out with solutions.

The meeting held monthly has not taken place since the appointment of Olayemi Cardoso as the CBN governor.

In September, when the meeting was to be held, the apex bank through its spokesman, Dr. Isa Abdulmumin announced the meeting had been postponed.

Since then, the meeting has not been held amidst the mounting inflationary pressures in the country.

Last week, inflation reached an all-time high with headline inflation increasing to 27.33 per cent in October 2023, according to the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS).

It would be recalled that during the 292nd MPC meeting held on July 24th and 25th, the bank raised the interest rate to 18.75 per cent from 18.50 per cent in a bid to tighten the economy.

Despite the rise in inflation and the seemingly unending foreign exchange liquidity challenge, the MPC meeting has once again been postponed.

The CBN spokesman was quoted by Bloomberg as confirming that the meeting scheduled for yesterday and today (November 21, 2023) is not being held this week.

Meanwhile, the pressure on naira continued yesterday as the foreign exchange market opened with a dollar selling for N1,140 at the parallel market, about the same rate it closed last weekend.

Checks at the unofficial market in Lagos indicated that the dollar was traded between N1,100 and N1,150 while it exchanged for N820.18 at the official market.

Professor of Capital Market, Professor Uche Uwaleke commenting on the postponement said, “The postponement of the MPC for the second consecutive time could be a blessing in disguise in the sense that if the MPC had held in September, it was most likely the MPR would have been jerked up thereby further increasing the cost of doing business and reducing access to credit.

“This would have been the outcome of the meeting against the backdrop of the pressure by the IMF for an MPR hike to reduce money supply which would not have had any significant impact on the rising inflation.”