Bankers told the Reserve Bank of India on Monday they were confident of achieving a 20 per cent credit growth in the current fiscal, higher than the rate clocked last fiscal, on the back of a strong revival in credit demand due to the economic recovery.
"With all the available parameters there, it credit growth) will be definitely better than last year," SBI chairman, O P Bhatt told reporters in Mumbai, adding that a 20 per cent growth looks attainable 'at the moment'.
The government has set a growth target of 20 per cent for banks both in the credit and deposit segments in the current fiscal.
In FY10, banks had beaten the 16 per cent target set by the RBI and ended the year with 16.5 per cent loan growth.
Bhatt said the credit growth has already started picking up in the system and once the demand escalates further, there would be pressure on banks to garner more deposits by hiking their deposit rates.
"Once the credit demand escalates, there will be a pressure on deposit rates to go up," Bhatt said, adding that State Bank, however, would wait for policy cues from the RBI on July 27 prior to effecting any changes on its interest rates.
