Expect growth in credit pick-up by Q2 of 2015-16: Arundhati Bhattacharya

State Bank of India chairperson says rate cut by RBI is not imminent

State Bank of India (SBI) Chairman Arundhati Bhattacharya on Monday said credit growth hasn’t really picked up speed in the country and she expects a turnaround by the second quarter of the next financial year.

Annual credit growth in the banking system fell below 10 per cent to 9.68 per cent in early September 2014 for the first time since October 2009 (9.01 per cent), according to the data shared by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI).

When asked if SBI was expecting interest rate cut by the RBI in the next round of monetary policy review in early February, she said, “We are not expecting any immediate rate cuts. We expect rate cuts only by the first quarter.”

When asked whether SBI was expecting interest rate cut by RBI in the next round of monetary policy review in early February, Bhattacharya, the first woman to head India's largest bank, said, "We are not expecting any immediate rate cuts. We expect rate cuts only by the first quarter." 

In its last policy review in early December, RBI held interest rates steady, and said it could ease monetary policy early next year provided inflationary pressures do not reappear and the government controls the fiscal deficit. The benchmark repo rate (the rate at which banks borrow from the central bank) was left untouched at 8%.