The Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Godwin Emefiele has maintained the interest rate at 13.5 per cent. From the last Monetary Policy Committee(MPC) meeting in March, a 0.5 per cent cut was made in the interest rate.
The decision comes a day after Nigeria’s bureau of statistics reported that economic growth had slowed in the first quarter of 2019, dropping to 2.01% from 2.38% in the previous quarter as the country’s dominant oil sector shrank.
This reduction is the first since November 2015. The rate had been held at 14% since July 2016 to support the naira and curb inflation.
Earlier this month, Emefiele, became the first Nigerian Central Bank governor since the return to democracy in 1999 to be given a second term. The CBN had predicted that growth this year would come in at 2.38 per cent.
Nigeria emerged from its first recession in 25 years in 2017. Higher oil prices and recent debt sales have helped it accrue billions of dollars in foreign reserves, but growth remains fragile with inflation edging up in April to 11.37% from 11.25% a month earlier.