‘Will wait for cues before effecting rate changes’

Ahead of the Reserve Bank’s annual monetary policy later this month, the country’s largest private sector lender ICICI Bank...

Ahead of the Reserve Bank’s annual monetary policy later this month, the country’s largest private sector lender ICICI Bank on said it would wait for policy signals before effecting any change in interest rates.

“We have a very comfortable liquidity situation in the country. Given that it is right to wait for any policy signal before any movement in the interest rate is effected,” ICICI Bank CEO and MD KV Kamath said. The Reserve Bank is scheduled to announce annual monetary policy on April 29.

Meanwhile, another top bank official said interest rates were unlikely to rise and would stay in the present range while the liquidity situation was comfortable. “Interest rates did not spiral in the month of March and we raised deposits at the same rates as in January and February…they (interest rates) would stay somewhere at where they are now,” ICICI Bank’s joint managing director Chanda Kochhar said.

On interest rates Kamath said the bank would review market conditions before taking any measure to change them, adding that the bank had not reduced interest rates “when other banks were cutting rates”.

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