RBI releases MPC's meeting schedule for 2023-24

The Reserve Bank of India on Friday released meeting schedule of the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) for the next financial year (FY24).

The first meeting for the next fiscal will be held on April 3-5, 2023, as per the release.

RBI's rate setting panel meets bi-monthly to discuss measures to keep in check the macroeconomic indicators.

The MPC had last met in February where it had hiked the repo rate, key interest rate, by 25 basis points in order to bring down the inflation within its tolerance band of 2-6 per cent.

The key benchmark rate was hiked for the sixth consecutive time in February's meet, which was the last one for the current fiscal (FY23).

In the previous month, the retail inflation fell marginally but remained above RBI's 6 per cent upper tolerance band for the second straight month, with the Consumer Price Index pegged at 6.44 per cent, government data showed.

The retail inflation in rural and urban India was 6.72 per cent and 6.1 per cent, respectively. Cereals, products, and fruits, among others, contributed to the elevation in retail inflation in February.

Further, Consumer Food Price Index in February was 5.95 per cent, data showed. Retail inflation for vegetables, however, declined 11.61 per cent.

In January, the retail inflation was 6.52 per cent.

India's retail inflation was above RBI's 6 per cent target for three consecutive quarters and had managed to fall back to the RBI's comfort zone only in November 2022.

Since May last year, the RBI has increased the short-term lending rate by 250 basis points, including the latest 25 bps hike, to tame inflation. Raising repo rate helps in cooling demand in the economy and thus helps in managing inflation.

Raising interest rates is a monetary policy instrument that typically helps suppress demand in the economy, thereby helping the inflation rate decline.