The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has called off its first Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) meeting in the year initially scheduled to hold between Monday and Tuesday due to lack of quorum, the bank governor said on Monday.
Gowin Emefiele in a statement said in the absence of a meeting of the MPC meeting, the bank will maintain key policy variables as decided at the last MPC meeting in November last year.
He said benchmark interest rate will remain at 14 percent, cash reserves ratio stands at 22.5 percent while liquidity ratio is retained at 30 percent.
The governor said Nigeria's external reserves rose to $40.78 billion naira at the close of business on January 18, while key economic indicators continue to move in the right direction.
"We have recorded inflows of almost $13 billion since the introduction of the investors' and exporters' forex window about nine months ago, reflecting strong investor confidence in Nigeria," Emefiele said.
According to him, the forex inflows have boosted forex supply and helped stabilise the exchange rate, while the market capitalisation of the stock exchange has improved bt 22.3 percent from 13.21 trillion naira on Nov. 30, to 16.15 trillion naira by Jan. 19.
"The management of the CBN is determined to sustain these gains and will continue our vigilance and proactivitiy ot ensure macroeconomic stability through 2018.
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