BY AYO OLOWO
The Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has ruled out the possibility of devaluing the naira, following the recent pressure on the national currency from the foreign exchange market.
The Governor of the CBN), Mr. Godwin Emefiele, told journalists on Friday after the MPC meeting in Abuja that the naira was appropriately priced and that developments in the financial market would be closely monitored within the coming weeks.
He noted that the currency had been depreciated by 22 percent from N155 to N197 and that “we cannot continue to adopt an indeterminate depreciation of our currency because of its impact on our people given that this is a heavily import dependent economy”.
“So the naira is appropriately priced and we will continue to monitor the situation and in the cause of tine if there is any need to change our position, we will let you know,” he said.
Emefiele disclosed that the committee retained the Monetary Policy Rate (MPR) at 13 percent with a corridor of +/- 200 basis points around the midpoint and the Cash Reserve Requirement (CRR) at 31 percent.
He explained that the committee took the decisions after considering a lot of factors which included the underlying fundamentals of the economy, the evolving international economic environment, developments in the global oil market as well as the need to allow for the unveiling of the economic agenda of the Federal Government.
Emefiele also said that the committee underscored the imperative of growing and protecting the country’s foreign reserves and building fiscal buffers in the process of strengthening confidence in the economy, which is essential for promoting growth and stability.
He added that gross official reserves increased from $28.57bn at end-May 2015 to 31.53bn as at July 22, 2015, reflecting the blockage of leakages as well as the bank’s management policies.
STARAFRICA
