Economic Analyst’s – CBN to Hold All Economic Parameters Constant Ahead of MPR Meeting

Economic analysts forecast that the Monetary Policy Committee will hold all economic parameters including benchmark interest rate constant for the first MRP meeting for 2022.

According to reports from the Central Bank of Nigeria, the MPC meeting will be held on Monday and Tuesday, 24^th and 25^th January 2022.

Recall that in the last MPR meeting (November 2021), the monetary policy committee maintained Cash Reserve Ratio at 27.5 per cent, Monetary Policy Rate at 11.5 per cent, liquidity ratio at 30.0 per cent and asymmetric corridor at +100/–700 basis points.

Research Analysts at First Securities Discount House Limited (FSDH) stated in their economic publication that higher MPR may dent economic growth  and the omicron variant of the covid 19 variant will affect investors confidence.

“With this in mind, we believe that the MPC, in a bid to sustain economic recovery, will continue to favour economic growth over inflation targeting by further expanding credit to the private sector.

“The emergence of the Omicron variant and its discovery in Nigeria will adversely impact investors’ confidence following the implementation of travel bans by other countries. This will affect foreign investment inflows and could motivate the MPC to maintain a higher MPR in 2022 in order to attract investment into Nigeria.

“In view of the fact that higher MPR could hurt growth, we anticipate the retention of key parameters in the first half of 2022.”

Dr Sam Nzekwe, a former President, Association of National Accountants of Nigeria (ANAN) has stated that the Monetary Policy Committee will maintain all variables ahead of the next meeting.

His words: “The first quarter cannot determine anything until second quarter. I think they should maintain all rates at the next Monetary Policy Committee meeting as they are because we don’t even know the direction during the first quarter now,”