The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on Thursday said the six-member Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) will begin its forthcoming three-day meeting a day later on August 3. It cited administrative exigencies as the reason for rescheduling the meeting.

Accordingly, RBI Governor Shaktikanta Das will make a statement on MPC’s resolution on August 5th (Friday) instead of August 4th.

The last time the MPC meeting was rescheduled was in February 2022.

The central bank then said that with February 7, 2022 being declared a public holiday by the Government of Maharashtra under Section 25 of the Negotiable Instruments Act, 1881 as a mark of respect to Bharat Ratna Lata Mangeshkar, the MPC meeting has been rescheduled to February 8–10, 2022.

At its last meeting, held from June 6 to 8, 2022, MPC members unanimously decided to increase the policy repo rate under the liquidity adjustment facility (LAF) by 50 basis points to 4.90 per cent (from 4.40 per cent) with immediate effect.

The rate hike came as retail inflation rose further from 7.0 per cent in March 2022 to 7.8 per cent in April 2022, reflecting a broad-based increase in all its major constituents.

The committee also decided to remain focussed on the withdrawal of accommodation to ensure that inflation remains within the target going forward, while supporting growth.

For FY23, MPC retained the real GDP growth projection at 7.2 per cent. However, it upped the inflation projection to 6.7 per cent from 5.7 per cent earlier.

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