The country’s biggest lender State Bank of India has said it will not increase its lending rates right away but will wait for additional signs from the Reserve Bank’s impending annual monetary policy.
SBI chairman OP Bhatt said “I do not see a hike in interest rates immediately. We have to wait for the RBI policy on April 20”. It means car loansoffered by SBI will not be affected at least for some more time.
Last month, the RBI had hiked its repo and reverse repo rates by 0.25% each to 5% and 3.75%, respectively to temper the increasing inflation, which has increased dramatically over the RBI’s prediction of 8.5% by March.
The WPI inflation went up to 9.89% in February from 8.56% in the earlier month because of rise in prices of some food items and fuels. In response to the RBI’s policy steps, many top bankers said that they would wait and judge market situations prior to examining their interest-rate structure.
Bhatt added SBI is well capitalized and that there is no urgent requirement for capital. But he said, it will have to generate capital in the medium to long term.
He also said he would favor a rights issue of Rs 10,000-20,000 crore (Rs 100-200 billion) by next financial purpose for this.