RBI Governor meets Jaitley before monetary policy review

Ahead of the Reserve Bank of India`s (RBI) forthcoming monetary policy review next week, RBI Governor Urjit Patel held his customary meeting with Finance Minister Arun Jaitley here on Friday, according to official sources.

A Finance Ministry source here said that following his meeting with Jaitley, Patel also met the new Economic Affairs Secretary Subhash Chandra Garg.

The six-member monetary policy committee (MPC) of the RBI headed by Patel will meet on August 1-2 in Mumbai for the third bi-monthly policy review of the fiscal in the backdrop of latest macro data strengthening the case for an interest rate cut by the central bank.

Retail inflation in June dropped to a record low of 1.54 per cent, while industrial production data showed that the growth in factory production fell to 1.7 per cent in May, from 8 per cent in the same month a year ago.

At its second bi-monthly monetary policy review of the fiscal on June 7, the Reserve Bank of India maintained status quo on its repo, or short-term rate for lending to commercial banks, at 6.25 per cent. In doing so, the policy statement said the six-member MPC was guided by the risks to inflation.

Last month, Patel told reporters here that the MPC had turned down the Finance Ministry`s invite for a discussion ahead of the panel`s policy review meeting.

Since the six-member MPC started setting rates in October last year, this was the first time it did not take a unanimous decision, with five members voting in favour of holding the rate and one opposing.

Three of the six members of the MPC are government nominees, while the others are from the RBI.