The Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), in its 293rd meeting held on the 27th of February, raised the Monetary Policy Rate (MPR) by 400 basis points, from 18.75 percent to 22.75 percent. The MPR is the benchmark interest rate set by the CBN for commercial banks to disburse loans to businesses and individuals. The committee also agreed to raise the Cash Reserve Ratio (CRR), the percentage of a commercial bank's deposits that it must keep in reserve, from 32.5 percent to 45 percent.

This snapshot for March 2024 provides trends, and insights on key macroeconomic indicators such as Inflation, foreign reserves, currency in circulation and crude oil prices.

In its recent CPI and Inflation report, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) revealed that Nigeria’s inflation rate increased to 29.90 percent in January 2024, a 0.98 percentage points rise from 28.92 percent recorded in December 2023. On a year-on-year basis, this represents an 8.08 percentage points increase from 21.82 percent in January 2023. Food inflation increased to 35.41 percent from 33.93 percent recorded in December 2023 and 24.32 percent in January 2023. The persistent upward trend in Nigeria’s inflation rate emerges from multiple factors including growth in money supply and higher prices in selected food items driven by the country’s epileptic food supply chain, insecurity, rising transportation costs, and low agricultural productivity. 

The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has halted quasi-fiscal measures totalling over 10 trillion naira. The finance was issued by the CBN previously as development finance interventions. The cessation of quasi-fiscal measures by the CBN emerges as a response to empirical findings indicating that these measures to assist Micro,Small, And Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) have substantially increased the money supply, consequently contributing to the current inflation rates. Also, the size of the quasi-fiscal functions makes it easy for the CBN to lose sight of its core functions. This is largely because the independence of the CBN is weak and there is strong political pressure to make economic growth its primary function.

The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has revealed, in its data on movement on gross foreign reserves, that the country’s foreign reserves, which were $37.1 billion as of January 3, 2023, fell to $33.1 billion by February 8, 2024.This represents a 10.7 per cent decline ($4 billion) in foreign reserves. Consequently, the number of months of imports equivalent declined from 7.6 months in January 2023 to 6.8 months as of February 8, 2024