First time since inception, RBI’s monetary policy committee to meet for 3 days in June

New Delhi, May 18: In a first, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) announced that its monetary policy committee (MPC) will hold a three-day meeting in June, as opposed to the usual two-day schedule. In a statement, the RBI stated that the meeting would be held from June 4 to 6, instead of the scheduled dates of June 5 and 6. The RBI said the change in schedule is due to "administrative" reasons.

 

"Owing to certain administrative demands, 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. There is no change in the dates of all other MPC meetings for the year 2018-19," the statement read.

For those unversed, the RBI's six-member committee has been entrusted with the task of setting the benchmark interest rate after an amendment was passed through the Finance Act, 2016. Prior to the establishment of the MPC, the RBI Governor was responsible for setting the interest rate.

In the previous Bi-Monthly Monetary Policy statement announced in April, the MPC had kept the repo rate and reverse repo rate unchanged at 6 percent and 5.75% respectively. The Committee also projected real Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth of 7.4% in FY19, as against 6.6% in FY18. On a related note, the second Bi-monthly Monetary Policy statement of this fiscal will be announced on June 6.