A government-appointed selection panel hasn’t disclosed who the likely candidates are or when they will release the names of the new MPC members.
RBI watchers are getting anxious about who will decide interest rates in two week’s time, a crucial meeting as a wave of global easing kicks off.
The contracts of three external members of the Reserve Bank of India’s monetary policy committee will expire on Oct 4, just days before the MPC is expected to meet and make its rate decision on Oct 9. A government-appointed selection panel hasn’t disclosed who the likely candidates are or when they will release the names of the new MPC members.
A delay in the appointments risks a repeat of 2020, when the RBI had to postpone its rate decision because the new committee members hadn’t been appointed in time. Looming in the background is also uncertainty over who will lead the RBI from next year, with the contracts of both Governor Shaktikanta Das and his deputy in charge of monetary policy, Michael Patra, coming to an end in coming months.
“Extensions and reappointments should be concluded and announced well ahead avoiding last minute delays. Unwarranted suspense in critical appointments is unsettling and distracting,” said Shubhada M Rao, founder of QuantEco Research, based in Mumbai. “This becomes relevant especially for the financial markets that seek signals around policy continuity,” she said.
The RBI’s policy committee is made up of three external members — usually well-known economists from the academic or finance worlds — and three RBI officials, comprising the governor, the deputy governor in charge of the monetary policy, and another official, typically the executive director of the monetary policy department.