The Central Bank of Nigeria on Tuesday raised the interest rate to 13 per cent for the first time in two years.

The interest rate was raised from 11.5 per cent to 13.5 per cent.

The CBN Governor, Godwin Emefiele, announced this on Tuesday while addressing the reporters after the Monetary Policy Committee meeting in Abuja.

Justifying the raise, Emefiele said the MPC is suspicious there might be an aggressive accretion of inflation.

To prevent the looming inflation, he said, the MPC had to increase the monetary policy rate by 150 basis points.

Meanwhile, the nation’s apex bank retained the asymmetric corridor around the MPR at +100 /-700 basis points, Cash Reserve Ratio at 27.4 per cent, and Liquidity Ratio at 30 percent.

Punch