Central Bank of India is not looking at hiking lending rates for now, despite the RBI move of Tuesday to nudge upwards its short-term policy rates by 25 basis points.
“Not at the moment. First of all the liquidity position has eased in recent couple of weeks. So we may not look at immediately increasing our lending rates. But the position will be kept under constant review because there is definitely an upward bias on interest rates,” Mr S. Sridhar, Chairman and Managing Director of the bank, said here when asked about possible hike in lending rates.
He said the liquidity position of the bank is “reasonably good,” partly due to the bank's strategy of not expanding its credit portfolio over the last two months, the way it would have otherwise normally expanded.
“Our overall position is reasonable. Of course position is bit tighter than what it was in the same period last year. But the position is absolutely under control,” Mr Sridhar said.
Credit growth
At present , Central Bank's advances are growing over 22 per cent. Mr Sridhar said the bank expects to end the current fiscal with a credit growth of 20-22 per cent.
He also ruled out deposit rate increase for the time being, as the bank had raised deposit rates early this month.
“From what indications we have from both the Government and market, we expect Government spending to increase and that should improve liquidity, except maybe around mid-march when there will be usual spike on account of advance tax payments,” Mr Sridhar said .
+1.jpg)
0 comments
Post a Comment