Analysts’ advice CBN to retain rates as MPC meets

The two-day Central Bank of Nigeria’s (CBN) Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) meeting, which commences today will be closely watched after the country’s emerging market peers – Turkey and Russia- recently raised interest rate.

Analysts at FSDH Merchant Bank Limited, believe that the most appropriate monetary policy decision under the current economic and financial market situation “is to hold policy rates at the current levels,” saying the need to “provide necessary incentives for the Nigerian economy to achieve inclusive growth negates an option of a rate increase.”

Meanwhile, MPC members would be under pressure to take measures that would help the country retain exiting foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) amid turmoil in emerging markets (EMs), tame inflationary pressure and help halt external reserves depreciation.

Stock markets as well as currencies in EMs such as Argentina, Turkey, South Africa, Brazil, Mexico, Egypt, South Korea, Philippines and China, have plunged heavily in the past few weeks, even as the naira has remained stable. EMs across board have been under pressure since the US Federal Reserve raised interest rates in June.

In Nigeria, the external reserves have depreciated by 5.7 per cent this quarter, from $47.596 billion as of June 1, to $44.890 billion last Thursday.

The country recorded sluggish growth rate of 1.5 per cent in the second quarter of 2018.

Also, Nigeria’s Consumer Price Index, (CPI) which measures inflation increased by 0.09 per cent to 11.23 percent (year-on-year) in August, compared to the 11.14 per cent recorded the preceding month, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) had revealed. That was the first year-on-year rise in headline inflation after 18 consecutive disinflation in the index.

At its last meeting in July 2018, the MPC maintained the benchmark monetary policy rate (MPR) at 14 per cent, retained the cash reserve requirement (CRR) and liquidity ratio at 22.50 per cent and 30 per cent respectively. It had also announced measures to provide cheaper funding for some critical sectors of the economy to boost economic activities through its Real Sector Support Facility (RSSF).

CBN Deputy Governor, Dr. Joseph Nnanna, had last month hinted about plans to increase the interest rate in response to higher inflation ahead of the general elections in February 2019.

According to Nnanna, virtually all members of the MPC had supported the idea that “the MPR should increase if inflationary pressures build up.”

Nnanna had said, “These factors would warrant a rate increase to send the right signal to the public, that the central bank will tighten policy to respond to higher inflation. There’s a scope to raise rates before the elections in February.

Nnanna said while policy tightening by the United States Federal Reserve was a concern, investors still saw Nigeria as an attractive market, thanks to the stable naira and the yield curve on fixed-income instruments higher than in the US or Europe.