The Reserve Bank of India will announce the annual Monetary and Credit Policy statement for the year 2004-05 on May 18.

RBI Governor Y V Reddy will unveil the policy at a meeting of chief executives of major scheduled commercial banks on May 18, the central bank said in a release in Mumbai on Wednesday.

Bankers said the policy statement since fiscal 1995-96 was always presented in April but has been postponed by nearly a month because of general elections.