HDFC not to hike rates till March

Speaking on the sidelines of the CII-World Bank seminar on improving investment climate on Wednesday, he said 8216;8216;HDFC had hiked interest for floating rate home loans by 0.5 per cent, but left the fixed rates untouched.8217;8217; Parekh, however hinted that Indian customers should now be prepared for more frequent ups and downs in interest rates.

On the macro front, Parekh said India needed more foreign direct investment FDI in spite of making a lot of progress on it. The FDI entry has to be made easier and more sectors like real estate and retail needed to be opened up, he said. Similarly, the country needed to speed up progress on infrastructure also, he added.

HDFC Standard Life, the life insurance subsidiary, is likely to go for listing in 2-3 years. HDFC does not have any plans for listing the non-life business at present.