RBI’s monetary policy committee to meet for 3 days in June instead of 2 days

Another bone of contention between the RBI and the government has been the latter's suggestion to start a payments regulator outside the purview of the RBI. (Image: Reuters)

For the first time since inception, the Reserve Bank of India’s Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) will meet for three days in June for the second bi-monthly policy review instead of the usual two days. The RBI said the change in schedule is due to "administrative" reasons.

The six members of the MPC led by RBI Governor Urjit Patel will meet on June 4, 5 and 6.

"Owing to certain administrative exigencies, the Second Bi-monthly Monetary Policy meeting for 2018-19 will now be held on June 4-6, 2018 instead of on June 5-6," the central bank said on its website.

Analysts and experts suggest there is a high probability of a repo rate hike in the June policy due to the spike in inflation to 4.6 percent in April and worries of high crude prices.

In the minutes of the last MPC meeting, RBI Deputy Governor Viral Acharya said he would vote in favour of a rate hike along the lines of RBI nominee and Executive Director Michael Patra, who has maintained a hawkish stance in the last two policies.

There is no change in the dates of other MPC meetings during the year 2018-19, the RBI added.

The schedule for MPC meetings for the year 2018-19, published on March 21, announced dates of six bi-monthly monetary policy meetings.

The first bi-monthly policy of the fiscal, held on April 5 and 6, had maintained a status quo in key policy repo rate at 6.00 percent.

The dates for the remaining meetings of the fiscal are July 31-August 1, October 3- 4, December 4-5, and February 5-6, 2019.