The central bank is not banking on Paul the Octopus, who?s fans like to believe it predicted the winner of Germany?s all seven matches at the 2010 World Cup.
Nor is RBI known to dabble in numerology or other such occult practices. And yet, it seems to be partial to a particular day of the week, and schedules policy reviews and changes on that day.
A quick analysis shows most RBI policy reviews were on a Tuesday. Of 35 policy reviews issued since 1997, 24 were on a Tuesday.
Tuesday was the most preferred policy reviews irrespective of who occupied the governor?s office: Bimal Jalan, YV Reddy or the current man at the helm on Mint Road, D Subbarao.
Perhaps Tuesdays are best for policy because major bond auctions or data releases are not normally scheduled on that day of the week. For years, it has auctioned treasury bills on Wednesdays and gilts on Friday. State loan auctions, however, are often on Tuesdays.
Bimal Jalan, who helmed RBI between September 1997 and September 2003, on three occasions chose to announce policy on Tuesday. On two instances each he announced the policy on Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Only on one instance did he announce the policy on Thursday.
Tuesday became the rule in the tenure of his successor, YV Reddy: 15 of his 17 policy reviews were announced on Tuesday. Reddy, who was governor from September 2003 to September 2008, added two quarterly reviews each fiscal.
The present governor, D Subbarao, also appears to be partial to Tuesdays. Since he took over two years ago, he has unveiled eight reviews, and six were on Tuesdays, and twice on Friday.
In four of the Tuesday?s Subbarao changed policy rates while in two he left it untouched. In the two reviews held on Friday, he did not make any change.
His next policy review on September 16 is a Thursday. Going by his track record, can it be concluded policy rates won?t be revised?