RBI's rate-setting panel starts meet, to end rates suspense on Thursday

New Delhi: The RBI's Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) Tuesday began 3-day meet to decide on key rates amid expectations it would change stance to neutral on low inflation but may not cut rates due to fiscal challenges and rising oil prices.

The six-member MPC, headed by RBI Governor Shaktikanta Das, will meet between Tuesday and Thursday for the sixth bi-monthly monetary policy statement for 2018-19.

Deviating from the practice of releasing the resolution of MPC in afternoon, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) will place it on its website at 11.45 am on February 7.

The RBI maintained status quo on the key lending rate (repo) in its last three bi-monthly policy reviews after raising the rate twice by 25 basis points each in the fiscal. Currently, the repo rate stands at 6.50 per cent.

In its previous monetary policy review in December 2018, the RBI had kept interest rates unchanged but held out a promise to cut them if the upside risks to the inflation do not materialise.