The Central Bank of Nigeria has rescheduled the 299th Monetary Policy Committee meeting earlier slated for February 17 and 18, 2025.
In a statement on Monday, the apex bank said the meeting will now be held on February 18 and 19, 2025.
The statement read, “The Central Bank of Nigeria has announced that the 299th meeting of its Monetary Policy Committee earlier scheduled for February 17 and 18, 2025, will now be held on Wednesday, February 18 and Thursday, February 19, 2025.”
The development ends speculations over the meeting dates, which arose due to delays by the National Bureau of Statistics in releasing the rebased Consumer Price Index.
With a new date confirmed, the statement noted that economic analysts are keenly watching to see if the committee will retain or increase the Monetary Policy Rate in response to prevailing economic conditions.
The PUNCH further observed that the first MPC meeting for 2025 was initially set for January 27–28 but was moved to February, reportedly to allow time for the rebased inflation and GDP figures to be released.
This would not be the first time the CBN postponed its MPC meeting under the leadership of Olayemi Cardoso.
After he was newly appointed in September 2023, the CBN postponed a meeting of its MPC again as investors and analysts look forward to the move by Cardoso in tackling surging inflation.
The CBN held its first MPC meeting of 2024 on February 26 and 27, which was also the first under Cardoso’s leadership.
Monetary policy decisions rely heavily on inflation trends; however, the rebased CPI, which was expected at the end of January, has yet to be published by the NBS, raising concerns about the timing of key economic indicators ahead of the MPC meeting.
The NBS typically releases its CPI report on the 15th of every month. If the agency maintains this tradition, the inflation report could be published three days before the newly scheduled MPC meeting.(Punch)
