The Central Bank of Nigeria has postponed the first meeting of the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) in 2025 to March after delays in the release of the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) rebased consumer price index (CPI).
The first MPC meeting for 2025 was initially set for January 27–28 but was moved to February, reportedly to allow time for the rebased inflation and GDP figures to be released.
However, with the continued delay, the CBN is now considering shifting the meeting to March to ensure that the committee has the most up-to-date economic data before making policy decisions.
It would be recalled that the NBS in October 2024 announced plans to rebase the GDP and CPI to reflect current realities and capture structural changes in the economy.
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The rebasing of Nigeria’s CPI is expected to provide a more accurate reflection of inflation trends by incorporating changes in consumer spending patterns. The last rebasing was conducted in 2009, and since then, economic shifts—including increased spending on telecommunications and services—have not been fully captured in inflation measurements.
In addition to rebasing the CPI with the price reference period moved to 2024, the NBS also plans to introduce three new indices.
The rebased CPI, which was expected at the end of January, has yet to be published by the NBS, raising concerns about the timing of key economic indicators ahead of the MPC meeting.
This would not be the first time the CBN was postponing its MPC meeting under the leadership of Olayemi Cardoso, the apex bank governor. After he was newly appointed in September 2023, the CBN postponed a meeting of its MPC again as investors and analysts look forward to the move by the new Governor Olayemi Cardoso in tackling surging inflation.
