The Monetary Policy Committee of the Central Bank of Nigeria voted Tuesday to increase the benchmark interest rate by 100 basis points to 16.5 per cent, the highest since 2001.

The CBN Governor, Godwin Emefiele, disclosed this while reading the communique of the last MPC meeting of the year on Tuesday, November 22, 2022.

The MPC said the tightening would curb a higher rate of inflation and restore investors’ confidence.

According to a report by Nairametrics, the highlights of the MPC meeting included: increase MPR by 100 basis points to 16.5 per cent; the asymmetric corridor of +100/-700 basis points around the MPR was retained; the CRR was retained at 32.5 per cent; while the Liquidity Ratio was also kept at 30 per cent.

The apex bank had increased the MPR from 11.5 per cent earlier this year to 15.5 per cent across three consecutive rate hikes.

Inflation rate rose to 21.09 per cent in October 2022 from 20.77 per cent in the previous month.