The Reserve Bank of India, RBI, may ease monetary policy as early as January as price pressures ease in Asia's third-largest economy in the first part of next year on the back of slower growth.

RBI Governor Subbarao said this on Monday. Growth in India has slumped to around 5.5 percent a year, far below the 9 percent rate it was clocking before the 2008 global financial crisis, while high inflation undermines domestic consumption.

Pressure has been mounting for lower interest rates, and the RBI last week put markets on notice that it may ease in the first quarter of 2013, although it did not specify when.