The Centre for the Promotion of Public Enterprise (CPPE) has urged the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to hold monetary policy tightening ahead of its Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) meeting this month.
Reacting to the latest inflation figures published by the NBS where headline inflation rose to 33.69% in the month of April, Director-General of the CPPE, Dr Muda Yusuf, noted that businesses were yet to recover from the hawkish monetary policy stance in the last two months.
He said monetary policy tools should be paused for the fiscal side of the economy to work towards addressing the supply issues affecting the inflation dynamics in the country.
Yusuf acknowledged the slowdown in inflation for the month, especially headline and food inflation, but noted that the main drivers of price hikes (food, transport, insecurity in farming communities and other structural problems) were yet to cool down.
He explained that the drivers of inflation are supply-based and being addressed by the fiscal authorities.
Also, Dr. Yusuf doubled down on his call to the Nigerian Customs Service (NCS) to set a quarterly exchange rate between N800 and N1000 for import duties assessment, noting that the continuous fluctuation has a pass-through effect on inflation.
