RBI shifts monetary policy timing to mid-afternoon-:- Equity Research

The Reserve Bank has decided to change the timing of announcement of its policy review, due next Tuesday, to mid-afternoon. For long, the central bank has been unveiling the monetary policy at 11 am. "The resolution of MPC will be placed on the official website of RBI at 2.30 pm on October 4," the central bank said on its website, adding that MPC will be meeting on Monday and also Tuesday to take a call on rates. The announcement, which will come in during market hours itself, will be followed by a press conference to be addressed by new Governor Urjit Patel at 2.45 pm, it said. Under his predecessor Raghuram Rajan, the press meet had been starting at 11.10 am followed by a conference call with researchers and analysts in afternoon. When D Subbarao was at the helm, he addressed the press at 3 pm after announcing the policy at 11 am while the analyst call was slated for the next afternoon. Since this is the fourth bi-monthly policy review of this fiscal and the first under the MPC framework, the Reserve Bank will be coming up with the twice-a-year Monetary Policy Report that takes stock of macroeconomic developments. This will be Patel's maiden policy announcement as the Governor. He was the deputy governor in-charge of the monetary policy function for over four years before the recent elevation. It will also be the first policy to be announced under MPC, where the decision-making on rates will shift to the six-member panel which has equal representation from RBI and the government. While RBI nominees are Executive Director Michael Patra, Deputy Governor in-charge of monetary policy R Gandhi and Patel, who has a casting vote, the government's members are Chetan Ghate of the Indian Statistical Institute, Pami Dua of Delhi School of Economics and Ravindra Dholakia of IIM Ahmedabad. The panel, which was notified only yesterday, shall be meeting on October 3 and 4 to take a view on the rates, the Reserve Bank said on its website. With inflation subsiding last month and showing signs of downward trend, arrival of a new chief of the central bank and the panel-led decision making has led to expectations of a rate cut on Tuesday.