RBI Monetary Policy Meet Postponed To February 8 As Maharashtra Declares Holiday On Monday

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on Sunday rescheduled its monetary policy committee (MPC) meeting, which was to begin from tomorrow (Monday, February 7), to February 8. 

The decision to postpone the MPC meeting by a day was taken by RBI as Maharashtra government has declared a public holiday on Monday to mourn the death of legendary playback singer Lata Mangeshkar, who passed away earlier today.

The MPC meeting will now be held between February 8 to 10, 2022.

The committee meets on a bi-monthly basis to review and revise the key lending rates (repo and reverse repo rates). The decision of the committee on whether to retain or revise the rates is announced on the last (third) day of deliberations, by the RBI governor Shaktikanta Das.

With February 7, 2022 being declared a public holiday by the Government of Maharashtra under Section 25 of the Negotiable Instruments Act, 1881 as a mark of respect to Bharat Ratna Kumari Lata Mangeshkar, the MPC meeting has been rescheduled to February 8-10, 2022," the RBI said in a late evening statement.

In a separate release, the RBI said that there will be no transactions and settlements in government securities (primary and secondary), foreign exchange, money markets and Rupee Interest Rate Derivatives on February 7, 2022.

"Settlement of all outstanding transactions will accordingly get postponed to the next working day i.e., February 8, 2022," the release said.

Transactions under Liquidity Adjustment Facility (LAF) Fixed rate Reverse Repo and MSF operations, for which the second leg settlement date was February 7, 2022 will now mature on the next working day i.e., February 8, 2022.

Meanwhuile, the RBI is likely to maintain the status quo on key policy rates in its review of monetary policy, which will be the first after the presentation of the budget for 2022-23.