Low rates may end

Mumbai
Oct 7: The Reserve Bank of India is likely to hike interest rates marginally in the fourth quarter of this fiscal to rein in the steady rise in prices, a top financial sector expert said.
“To give a signal that the government is concerned about inflationary pressures, there is a chance of a marginal hike in interest rates in the January-March 2010 quarter,” the HDFC chairman, Mr Deepak Parekh, told reporters here. The hike in interest rates could be by at least 0.5 per cent, he said.
Mr Parekh said that lending to top commercial real estate developers is unlikely to pick up and disbursements may not happen in the sector. Mr Parekh, who was speaking on the sidelines of a forum here on private equity said, “Comme-rcial real estate is in surplus today and I don’t see real estate picking up.”
The demand for home loans in the retail sector has increased significantly, he said. The sequential growth in loan approval for July-September has been 30 per cent and he expects good disbursements in the second half of 2009-10.