Reserve Bank to announce its second bi-monthly Monetary Policy of 2018-19 today

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) will announce its second bi-monthly Monetary Policy of 2018-19 this afternoon. The Monetary Policy Committee, headed by RBI Governor Urjit Patel, began its meeting in Mumbai on Monday, and it will meet today as well before the policy will be announced. This is the first time the six-member committee is meeting for three days instead of the usual two, due to certain administrative exigencies.

In the first bi-monthly policy of the current fiscal, the central bank had, in April,



kept all its key rates unchanged for the fourth time in a row. 

The repo rate, at which RBI lends short-term money to other banks, currently stands at 6 percent, while the reverse repo rate, at which it borrows from banks, is 5.75 percent.

The last rate hike was announced by RBI in January 2014 when the repo rate was increased to 8 percent. Since then, the apex bank has either reduced the rate or maintained status quo.