The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has retained the Monetary Policy Rate (MPR) at 27.50 per cent.
This is the second consecutive time the CBN will fix the MPR at 27.50 per cent.
Olayemi Cardoso, the CBN Governor, announced the decision on Tuesday after the meeting of its Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) in Abuja.
He said the MPC based its decision on recent improvements in macroeconomic indicators in the country.
Cardoso also said the decision of the committee was unanimous.
The CBN also retained the asymmetric corridor around the MPR at +500/-100 basis points, while the Cash Reserve Ratio of Deposit Money Banks was fixed at 50.00 per cent, and that of Merchant Banks at 16.00 per cent/
It also kept the Liquidity Ratio unchanged at 30.00 per cent.
The CBN Governor explained that the gross external reserves increased by 2.85 per cent to 38.90 billion dollars as of 16th May 2025, from 37.82 billion dollars at the end ofMarch 2025.
This, accorxing to him, represents an
import cover of 7.6 months for goods and services. The balance of payments (BOP) recorded a surplus of 1.10 billion dollars in the fourth quarter of 2024,
compared to 4.21 billion dollars in the preceding quarter, on account of
moderation in current account surplus.
He opined that global output growth is expected to remain positive despite existing and emerging headwinds, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) downgraded
its global growth forecast to 2.8 per cent in 2025 and 3.0 per cent in 2026, compared to 3.3 per cent in 2024 due to the uncertain policy environment
He stated that members were unanimous in their resolution to maintain close surveillance of developments in both the domestic and global environments to
enable appropriate policy response to emerging shocks.
The next meeting of the Committee is scheduled to hold on the 21st and 22nd July, 2025