THE World Bank Group has said that the Central Bank of Nigeria must stay the course in its attempt to tackle inflation.
This was revealed by the Senior Economist for Nigeria, World Bank Group, Dr Sameer Matta, at the launch of the 2025 Macroeconomic Outlook of the Nigerian Economic Summit Group themed ‘Stabilisation in Transition: Rethinking Reform Strategies For 2025 and Beyond.’
The Monetary Policy Committee of the CBN hiked the benchmark rates a cumulative 875 basis points in 2024 to tackle rising inflation.
Speaking during a panel session at the event, Matta said, “I think what is critical in terms of inflation is to stay the course. I think that the central bank needs to continue to be focused on making sure that inflation is under control. Obviously, part of it is related to the supply side. What can be done to improve the yield on the agriculture side? What can be done to improve the link between the rural areas and the urban areas?
“There is the question of what can be done on the trade policy side. One would be to increase production locally, but that would take time. One of the things that can be done on the trade policy side is to think through which sectors could be targeted to allow some tariffs to be adjusted.”
Matta went on to explain that the cost of not doing reform was two per cent of GDP for fuel subsidy and three per cent of GDP for FX subsidy.