The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on Thursday announced that its Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) will have an off-cycle meeting on November 3.

The MPC’s off-cycle meeting has been convened as the central bank has failed to curb inflation, which has remained beyond its tolerance limit of 2 to 6 per cent for the past nine months.

“Under the provisions of Section 45ZN of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) Act 1934, read along with the Gazette notifications S.O.2215(E) dated June 27, 2016, and S.O.1422(E) dated March 31, 2021, and the Regulation 7 of the RBI Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) and Monetary Policy Process Regulation, 2016, an additional meeting of the MPC is being scheduled on November 3, 2022,” the RBI said in a statement.

Inflation has been above the RBI’s quarterly projections in the bi-annual monetary policy report (MPR) in eight out of the last 10 quarters until September, while retail price rise exceeded the 4 percent to 6 percent mandated target band since January.

Consumer Price Index (CPI) based retail inflation also rose to 7.41 percent in September. Retail inflation has remained beyond RBI’s tolerance limit for the last three quarters.

The last monetary policy meeting of RBI was held between 28-30 September. In its bi-monthly review meeting, it hiked the repo rate by 50 basis points to 5.90 per cent amid inflationary concerns.

It had said at that time that inflation is expected to remain elevated at around 6 per cent in the second half of 2022-23.

The decision was also taken on the basis of an assessment of the current and evolving macroeconomic situation, according to the minutes of the MPC meeting released on Friday.

The committee took the decision, taking into consideration the weakening of global economic activity due to the conflict in Ukraine and aggressive monetary policy actions and stances across the world.

“As financial conditions tighten, global financial markets are experiencing surges of volatility, with sporadic sell-offs in equity and bond markets, and the US dollar strengthening to a 20-year high,” the minutes said.

The panel further noted that emerging market economies (EMEs) are facing intensified pressures from retrenchment of portfolio flows, currency depreciations, reserve losses, and financial stability risks, besides the global inflation shock.

(with inputs from IANS)