The Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has raised the benchmark interest rate to 14% from 13%.
The CBN governor, Godwin Emefiele, said this Tuesday while addressing journalists after the committee’s meeting at the CBN headquarters in Abuja.
The new interest rate comes barely two months after the apex bank raised the interest rate to 13%.
The governor of the apex bank said the hike in interest rate would help tame rising inflation.
Nigeria’s inflation rose in June to its highest level in more than five years, fueled by rising prices of food and the high cost of diesel.
The inflation rate surged to 18.60% in June, up from 17.71% in the previous month, according to the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS). The new rate is the highest the nation has recorded since January 2017.
