Nigeria's central bank raises benchmark interest rate to 13%
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Nigeria's apex bank on Tuesday raised the Monetary Policy Rate, the benchmark interest rate, to 13 percent -- the first hike in more than two years.
Nigeria's apex bank on Tuesday raised the Monetary Policy Rate, the benchmark interest rate, to 13 percent -- the first hike in more than two years.
Consumer prices remain elevated in Nigeria, with headline inflation scaling 90bps to reach an 8-month high of 16.8% YoY in April 2022. Parsing through the breakdown, the food basket, which surged by 116bps, accounted for c.56.0% of the rise in CPI. The food price pressures reflect the impact of the ongoing lean season, a period coinciding with lower harvesting and relative scarcity. That said, we believe the pace of food inflation also slightly reflected the impact of the low base effect from April 2021.
Fitch Ratings has affirmed Nigeria's Long-Term Foreign-Currency Issuer Default Rating (LTFC IDR) at 'B' with a Stable Outlook.
Nigeria’s inflation rate dropped marginally to 15.6% in January 2022, representing a reversal from the uptick recorded in the previous month, when it increased to 15.63% in December 2021.