Addressing the issue of rising inflation in Nigeria is a top concern for the Central Bank of Nigeria.
Dr. Adetona Adedeji, the acting director of the Banking Supervision Department at CBN, highlighted this focus during the bank’s recent podcast episode on YouTube.
He reiterated the central bank’s commitment to tackling inflation as a primary objective, even if it means temporarily setting aside the challenge of increasing unemployment rates.
Adedeji stressed the importance of prioritizing inflation control, recognizing its far-reaching effects on various economic aspects.
“Our main goal is to combat inflation. The central bank’s current efforts are geared towards this goal. We are ready to take all necessary steps to combat inflation, despite possible repercussions in other areas.
“It’s not feasible to combat two major economic issues simultaneously. There will be trade-offs involved. When focusing on combating inflation, addressing unemployment concurrently becomes challenging. Making a choice between combating inflation and unemployment is essential, as both are crucial macroeconomic goals for economic development.
“For discussions on economic growth to be meaningful, addressing inflation becomes a prerequisite. Economic growth becomes a distant prospect when inflation runs high in an economy.
“Hence, it is imperative to concentrate efforts on combating inflation. By lowering inflation rates, discussions on economic growth can gradually emerge,” he explained.
Despite the consistent increase in interest rates by CBN, which reached 24.75% in March, Nigeria’s inflation rate surged to 33.20% in the same month.