By Our Correspondent

Lagos (INVESTADVOCATE)-Again Nigeria’s Central Bank Monday retained its Interest Rate at 12 percent (12%) as part of the decisions taken at its Communiqué No. 87 of the Monetary Policy Committee Meeting of Monday January 21 2013.

The CBN retained MPR at 12% with interest rate corridor of +/- 200 basis points.

Also, the CBN unanimously agreed to retain the Cash Reserve Requirement (CRR) at 12% and the Minimum Liquidity Ratio at 30%. It was said that two members voted for a reduction of the MPR by 25 basis points.

The 10 Member out of 12 in attendance on the External Sector Developments expressed satisfaction with the sustained accretion to external reserves which stood at US$43.849 billion as at December 31, 2012, representing an increase of US$1.682 billion or about 3.98 per cent from the level of US$42.167 billion at end-October 2012. Relative to the end- December 2011 level of US$32.915 billion, the external reserves at the end of December 2012, had risen by US$10.934 billion or 33.21 per cent.

The Committee reported that at the Wholesale Dutch Auction System (wDAS), the
exchange rate opened at N157.31/US$ on November 20, 2012 and closed at N157.33/US$ on December 31, 2012 representing a depreciation of N0.02 or 0.01 per cent. The average wDAS exchange rate during the period was N157.32/US$. At the BDC segment of the foreign exchange market, the selling rate opened at N160.00/US$ on November 20, 2012 and closed at N159.50/US$ on December 31, 2012, representing an appreciation of N0.50 or 0.31 per cent for the period.

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