Perhaps poised to quicken the return of the nation’s inflation rate to the single digit region, top the Bankers’ Committee (comprising top executives of the Central Bank of Nigeria and chief executive of banks in the country), in Lagos on Thursday, June 15, announced plans for a special Open Market Operation (OMO) to mop up a total of N200.322bn from the banking system.
The CBN said its decision to mop up liquidity, at the rate of 16% per annum, was in reaction to the maturity of N206bn.
Addressing newsmen, the bank’s Acting Director in charge of Corporate Communication, Isaac Okorafor, further explained that the apex Bank decided on the rate of 16% per annum due to the falling rate of inflation, which he noted will continue to fall.
It will be recalled that the CBN on Monday, June 12, 2017 released its Treasury Bills Issue Programme for the third quarter of 2017 in which it disclosed that the maturity dates for the various tenors will be June 15, June 22, July 6, July 20, August 3, August 17 and August 31, 2017, respectively.
Meanwhile, on Thursday also, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) published the Consumer Price Index (inflation rate) for the month of May which fell the most in in four months to 16.25% year-on-year from 17.24% in April.
The CPI, which measures the average change over a given time in the prices of goods and services consumed by people in their daily living, represents the fourth consecutive decline in the rate of inflation since January 2017.
The highest contributors to inflation during the period included meat, bread and cereals, solid and liquid fuels, fish, garment and clothing meterials and other articles of clothing
A breakdown of the figure showed that food sub-index in May dropped slightly to 19.27%, as against previous month’s 19.30%, just as it increased faster month-on-month, 2.54%, as against the 2.04% in April, boosted by bread and cereals, meat, fish, potatoes, yam and tubers, among others; while the core sub-index for the month rose by 13% year-on-year down from 14.8% in April YoY. On a MoM basis, it rose to 1.17% from 1.1% in April. The highest increase was recorded in wines and spirits, clothing materials and other articles of clothing, liquid fuel, fuel and lubricants for personal transport equipment, solid fuels, motor car, motorcycle and air transport.