THE RBI has commenced its first MPC meet for this fiscal year from 3rd of April 2024 till April 5th, 2024, and its deliberations will be announced on April 5th at 10 am.
This is a most awaited event, as the FED has already signaled a no rate change stance during its latest policy meet. A rate change directly impacts borrowing costs for banks and indirectly impacts the loan interest rates for businesses and individuals and hence is eagerly looked for.
Monetary Policy Committee
The Monetary Policy Committee is a committee constituted by the central government, and the central bank. The current Panel is headed by the governor Mr. ShaktiKanta Das, and has Shashanka Bhide, Ashima Goyal, Jayanth R Varma, Rajiv Ranjan, and Michael Debabrata Patra as part of the panel.
The MPC will be convening 6 times in this Fiscal year: The dates are as follows:
April 3-5 2024, June 5-7 2024, Aug 6-8 2024, Oct 7-9 2024, Dec 4-6 2024, Feb 5-7 2025
The current Repo rate is at 6.5 % which has been maintained since June 2023. Repo rates are the interest rate at which the RBI lends money to commercial banks. This is the rate which is controlled by RBI to monitor inflation.
Expectations
The MPC committee is not expected to make any rate cuts this quarter, and the central bank is expected to take a stance of wait and watch .The last quarter of FY25 will be more conducive for looking at rate cuts, depending on internal and global conditions.
