Urjit Patel to announce fiscal's first bi-monthly monetary policy today

Reserve Bank of India (RBI) Governor Urjit Patel, along with the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC), will announce their first bi-monthly monetary policy of the current financial year on Thursday.

In its last policy review of the previous fiscal in February, the RBI kept its key policy rate or the repo rate unchanged at 6.25% for the second time in a row with marginal standing facility rate, reverse repo rate and the bank rate unchanged. In October, Urjit Patel's first policy review as the RBI Governor, which was also the maiden review of the MPC, the repo rate was reduced by 0.25% to 6.25%.

Since then, the repo rate has been retained at 6.25%. However, since January 2015 the RBI has cut repo by 1.75%. In the last policy, the six members of the MPC voted in favour of holding rates amid hopes that the central bank will lower borrowing costs given the surge in bank deposits and slower pace of economic growth followed by the demonetization.