No hike in interest rates: SBI

The country's largest public sector lender State Bank of India on Thursday said that it does not expect the interest rates to go up in the short term.

"I do not see them (interest rates) rising in the near future," State Bank of India chairman O P Bhatt said.

The Reserve Bank of India while announcing Annual Credit Policy for 2008-09 had hiked the Cash Reserve Ratio (the percentage of deposits that commercial banks maintain with the Reserve Bank) by 25 basis points to 8.25 per cent.

Prior to this, the apex bank on April 17 had announced a hike in CRR by 50 basis points in two phases to contain inflationary expectations.

The Monetary and Credit Policy 2007-2008