HIGHER GROWTH RATE WILL SHAPE DECISION AS MPC MEETS TOMORROW

national Bureau of Statistics
As members of the Central Bank of Nigeria’s Monetary Policy
Committee converge on Abuja for the final edition of the
committee meeting for the year, there seems to be a consensus
among financial market analysts that the current regime of
higher growth rate and low inflation will be a game changer at
the meeting, reports Festus Akanbi
At last data suggesting that the Nigerian economy might
have begun to pick up have started to trickle into the market
through the office of the National Bureau of Statistics
(NBS).
For the first time this year, while the inflation figure has
started coming down, the GDP is showing some signs of
improvement.
It is a relief to the nation’s economy managers and
watchers considering the fact that Nigeria, like other oil
dependent nations have been battling with devastating
effects of the unabated plunge in the price of crude oil for
over a year. A barrel was sold for $43.66 as at the
weekend whereas the same quantity attracted $111 in
2014. Nigeria’s case was even made grimmer by a
combination of declined output and economic sabotage that
hallmarked the previous administration.
For a country, which had been experiencing arithmetical
progression in inflation figure since the beginning of the
year, last week’s announcement of a marginal decline in the
figure of the month of October, put at 9.3 per cent as
against last month’s figure of 9.4 per cent could be a
source of inspiration that better days are here.
Although the current threshold is still above the Central
Bank of Nigeria’s target upper limit of 9 per cent, the initial
reaction of economic experts was that the current figure is a
sign of good things to come.
Declining Inflation
According to the NBS, the Composite Price Index (CPI)
report, which measures the prices of goods and services
indicated that the Headline index decreased slightly as a
result of lower increases in most divisions, which contribute
to the index with the exceptions being Transport, Recreation
and Culture divisions.
The Bureau reported further that food prices also edged
lower in the month under review, with the Food sub-index
increasing by 10.1 per cent from 10.2 per cent recorded in
September.