RBI monetary policy announcement: When, where to watch and what to expect?

RBI MPC meeting: The meeting of the six-member committee started on December 6 in Mumbai and will end with the announcement of Governor Shaktikanta Das on December 8

The Reserve Bank of India's Monetary Policy Committee (RBI MPC) is all set to announce its policy decision on Friday, December 8. The RBI MPC meeting started on December 6. The primary aim of RBI MPC is to fix a repo rate to control inflation in the country while promoting economic growth.

The RBI MPC has six members, three internal and three external. It is led by the RBI governor. Currently, Shaktikanta Das, Rajiv Ranjan and Michael Debabrata Panda are the internal members. The external members are Shashanka Bhide, Ashima Goyal and Jayanth R Varma.

RBI MPC meeting date

The three-day meeting started on December 6 in Mumbai and will end on December 8 with the policy announcement.

RBI MPC meeting announcement time

The RBI monetary policy announcement will be made by Governor Shaktikata Das on December 8 at 10 am. After that, he will address a press conference at 12 pm.

RBI MPC: Where to watch?

The central bank will stream Das's MPC announcement on the RBI's YouTube channel as well as its X handle.

RBI MPC meeting: What to expect?

The RBI has kept the repo rate unchanged since April 2023 at 6.5 per cent. Before that, it was cumulatively raised by 250 basis between May 2022 and April 2023. Experts now believe that in this announcement, too, the repo rate is expected to be unchanged.

A recent report authored by Soumya Kanti Ghosh, chief economic advisor at State Bank of India, said that the central bank will maintain a status quo in the upcoming RBI MPC announcement. 

Vikrant Mehta, head of Fixed Income at ITI AMC, earlier said that the MPC is expected to be a "non-event from the policy rate perspective as the central bank is predicted to keep the repo rate unchanged for the fifth meeting in a row". 

"While we do not expect the RBI to indicate a 'dovish hold' in this meeting, we do expect the central bank to tone down its hawkishness as the global environment is less hostile as compared to the previous policy review in October 2023," Mehta added.

On Wednesday, at a press briefing, Girish Kousgi, managing director and chief executive officer at PNB Housing Finance, also said that the RBI is expected to keep the rate unchanged.

"We feel that this consolidation phase will continue for some months, and after that, the rates are likely to start going down, maybe starting at 25 basis points," he said. "I think the increase is over".