About 74.2 per cent of respondents to the inflation expectations survey conducted by the Statistics Department of the CBN believed that the apex bank should have reduced the interest rate in July.

This is in contrast to 12.4 per cent who thought that the interest rate should be raised, while 13.4 per cent preferred that the rates remain unchanged.

The survey results were released by the CBN recently on its website.

At its last meeting, the Monetary Policy Committee of the CBN raised the benchmark rate by 50 basis points to 26.75 per cent, the fourth increase in seven months.

The CBN Governor, Olayemi Cardoso, said the hike was in response to the continued inflationary pressures.

He explained that while the CBN was concerned about the impact of the high interest rate environment on Nigerians and businesses, it was important to maintain its inflation-tightening stance.

Also, businesses and households surveyed believed that the July inflation rate was high, with most of the respondents believing that changes in the price of energy, exchange rate and transportation were the major drivers of inflation in July.

Nigeria’s inflation moderated to 33.40 per cent in July from 34.19 per cent in the previous month, according to the National Bureau of Statistics.

The central bank said that the survey for July was conducted from July 14-26, among selected businesses and households with a sample of 1,600 and 1,650 respectively, in the 36 states of the federation and the Federal Capital Territory.

The IES aims to gather insights on how businesses and households perceive current and future inflation trends and the major drivers of inflation.