According to the Central Bank of Nigeria, the country’s economy is beginning to benefit from the changes it made to its monetary policy.
Isa AbdulMumin, Director of the Apex Bank’s Corporate Communications Department, made this statement while discussing the most recent inflation rate that was made public by National Bureau of Statistics data on Wednesday in Abuja.
According to the statistics, the nation’s inflation rate increased to 27.33 percent in October, up 0.61 percentage points from September’s reading of 26.72 percent.
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However, AbdulMumin said that the NBS’s most recent inflation figure showed that the central bank’s money market reforms are progressively having an impact on the economy.
The director went on to say that the little increase in the average price level in October is proof positive that the CBN’s money market reforms and monetary policy stance were having the intended impact.
He mentioned that the apex bank’s leadership is focusing on fulfilling its primary responsibility of stabilizing the naira and lowering inflation.
He stated that the aggressive tightening of the monetary policy through the use of several liquidity mechanisms caused the Open Buy Back rates to rise from less than one percent in August to levels projected to be in line with the current monetary policy rate.
He mentioned Open Market Operations and lifting the Standing Deposit Facility cap as examples of such tools.
He reassured stakeholders that the CBN is making progress toward its stated aim of ensuring price stability in spite of the little increase.
According to the data that was available, September was the first time that prices appeared to be declining.
The notable decline in month-over-month changes in October suggests that further money market reforms, which started in October, have expedited the softening of prices.
“Monthly price changes in the headline, food, and essential consumer basket items moderated after the money market reforms and the FX market saw some relative stability,” he stated.