By InvestAdvocate
Lagos (INVESTADVOCATE)-Godwin Emefiele, governor of Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) said on Monday it will not be able to hold the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) for January, the first in 2018.
Emefiele in a statement said the earlier scheduled for MPC meeting for 22-23 January, 2018 was cancelled due to the Bank’s inability to form a quorum as stipulated in the CBN Act 2007.
Despite this development, he affirmed that that key economic indicators in Nigeria continues to move in the right direction. “With modest recovery in oil prices and boost in domestic production. Other indicators are the decline in inflation rate to 15.37 percent and growth in Nigeria’s Foreign Exchange Reserves, which has grown from $23 billion in October 2016 to $40.78 billion at the close of business on January 18, 2018,
Emefiele said the CBN would continue to maintain the key monetary variables as decided in the last MPC meeting of November 2017 and the Monetary Policy Rate (MPR) was retained at 14 percent; CRR at 22.5 percent; Liquidity Ratio at 30 percent and the Asymmetric Corridor at +200 and -500 basis points around the MPR.
According to him,since the introduction of the Investors’ and Exporters’ (I&E) window, opened by the CBN in 2017, investor confidence in Nigeria had grown stronger with an inflow of $13 billion in the past nine months.
“These inflows have boosted foreign exchange supply and helped to stabilise the exchange rate. We have also seen market capitalisation of our Stock Exchange improve by 22.3 percent from N13.21 trillion on Nov. 30, 2017 to N16.15 trillion as at Jan. 19, 2018.
“Also, the All-Share Index (ASI) rose by 18.8 percent from 37,944.60 to 45,092.83 over the same period,” Emefiele said.
Emefiele assured that a revised schedule of the Meetings for the MPC would be communicated as soon as the Bank met the statutory requirements of membership and quorum for the MPC.
The CBN governor assured its Management was determined to sustain the gains recorded in the economy and be vigilant and proactive, to ensure overall macro-economic stability throughout 2018.
He said that a revised schedule of the Meetings for the MPC would be communicated as soon as the Bank met the statutory requirements of membership and quorum for the MPC.
