RBI governor meets bankers, discusses industry issues

Amid inflation turning positive after over three months and slackening credit growth, Reserve Bank of India (RBI) Governor D Subbarao today met bankers here and discussed various industry issues.

The governor asked for feedback from bankers on various aspects such as loan growth in different segments, Allahabad Bank Chairman and Managing Director K R Kamath, who attended the meeting, told reporters here.

"This (meeting) was basically to get a feedback from the bankers on industry matters," Kamath said.

After remaining in negative zone for 13 weeks, wholesale prices inflation rose to 0.12 per cent for the week ended September 5, fuelled by rising food prices, making it difficult for RBI to chose between promoting industry growth or stemming surging prices.

Inflation based on retail prices of items consumed by agriculture and rural labourers released today also showed that it is more or less remained constant at elevated levels of over 12 per cent in August.

The RBI governor had earlier made it clear that he would continue with soft interest rates policy unless sure of sustained economic recovery.

Other bankers who attended the meeting were SBI Chairman, O P Bhatt, ICICI Bank Managing Director and CEO Chanda Kochhar and Bank of India CMD Alok Misra.

RBI is scheduled to come out with its quarterly review of credit policy on October 27.