All members both external and internal voted in favour of a pause in rates

MUMBAI: All members both external and internal for the fourth consecutive time have voted in favour of a pause in bench mark policy rate- the repo rate, the rate at which it lends to banks.

Ever since the Reserve Bank of India moved to a system of monetary policy committee ( MPC) in fixing monetary policy target in September , 2016, all the members – three internal and three external members have voted in unison opting for a pause in benchmark repo rate, leaving no room for any debate within. The central bank kept the repo rate unchanged at 6.25% and raised the reverse repo rate the rate at which absorbs liquidity from the system. It also estimates inflation at 4.5% in the first half of FY’18 and 5% in the second half of FY’18

“I think there are debates. But you could have a unified decision when things are clear-cut ” said Marios Maratheftis, global chief economist, Standard Chartered Bank in a recent interview with ET.

A release by the central bank said that all six members voted in favour of the monetary policy decision. External members are Chetan Ghate, a professor at Indian Statistical Institute; Pami Dua, director at Delhi School of Economics (DSE); and Ravindra Dholakia, professor at Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad, as MPC members.

The minutes of the MPC’s meeting will be published by April 20, 2017 and the MPC meets next on June 5 and 6, 2017.