The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has reached the desired degree of stability for the country's currency and does not have a cause to be concerned over inflation due mostly to recent stability in its core components, Governor Lamido Sanusi said at the weekend. Speaking before the bank's monetary policy committee, the CBN Governor said the bank may reduce its exposure to the euro and buy renminbi.
"When the naira reached 167 (to the U.S. dollar in October), every currency was going through a crisis ... Now, we have retraced that. We have created the stability that we needed. We have stopped the panic," Sanusi told Reuters in an interview on the sidelines of a conference in the Moroccan city Tangier.
Asked if the CBN has reached the desired degree of stability for the naira, Sanusi said: "I think we have and I think that within the next few days you might hear an announcement on what the sense is."
Inflation rose to 10.5 percent in October from 10.3 percent in September, but Sanusi said a breakdown of month-on-month numbers shows that "inflation has come down on all three components: headline, core and food inflation."
"Year-on-year, core (inflation) hasn't increased which has not been the increasing trend seen in the past," he said. "Month-to-month (inflation) has been moderating and core (inflation) is also not increasing (which) would suggest that as far as non-structural components are concerned at this moment ... we don't have a cause for concern."
Sanusi also said the central bank of Africa's biggest oil exporter may reduce its exposure to the euro currency.
DailyTrust