Ahead of the upcoming Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) meeting scheduled for February 17-18, 2025, its members are advocating for mild interest rate hikes and improved liquidity management in a bid to stem the surging inflation rate in the country.
This stance comes after six consecutive interest rate increases, with the most recent hike of 25 basis points bringing the rate to 27.50 per cent.
Despite these aggressive monetary tightening measures, the country’s inflation rate reached a three-decade high of 34.8 per cent in December 2024, severely eroding consumer purchasing power.
Hence, the developments since the last MPC meeting indicate further uncertainty in realising a durable disinflation trajectory towards the desired target.
According to the members who expressed their concerns in the personal statements which were released yesterday, the short-term upsides to inflation from food prices signal the potent effect of macroeconomic shocks, which may inhibit the moderation of headline inflation in Nigeria.
