Analysts disagree on MPC decision by 2.30pm today
By Ahead of the expected decision of the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) meeting any moment from now, analysts are expressing divergent views over interest rate decision. While some of them expect a cut in Monetary Policy Rate (MPR), others anticipate no change.
Yvonne Mhango, an economist at Renaissance Capital, said in a note to BusinessDay that “we expect no policy change at the 22 May monetary policy committee (MPC) meeting. We see the policy rate being cut by 1 ppt at the July and September meetings, respectively, bringing it down to 12 percent at year end 2018. This is not likely to have a meaningful policy easing effect, as open market operations will keep yields elevated”.
“We expect a cut today”, said Razia Khan, managing director, Chief Economist, Africa and Middle East Global Research, Standard Chartered Bank.
“Following a visit to Nigeria, we amend our policy rate view slightly. We still expect 400bps of policy easing, but this may happen later than initially forecast. With oil prices firm, and FX reserves supported, there is still room for MPR easing”, Khan said.
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