Bank rates likely to remain unchanged

Bankers do not expect any major changes in key interest rates by the Reserve Bank in its quarterly review of the monetary policy on October 31.

"I don't expect the RBI Governor to change key interest rates like bank rates, repo rates or reverse repo rates in the policy," Punjab National Bank CMD S C Gupta told PTI in New Delhi.

Even though the latest figures claim that inflation has gone up, overall liquidity in the economy is comfortable and the international interest rate scenario stable.

The interest rates are expected to be stable, he said.

"Either the interest rates will go up by 25 basis points or remain the same," Indian Bank CMD K C Chakrabarty told reporters when asked about his expectations from RBI's forthcoming review.

In general, the interest rates are expected to remain "benign", they will not come down substantially since they are already very low and they will not be revised much because of soft interest regime, he said.

So far as his own bank is concerned, Chakrabarty said the interest rates will remain same for the next 3-4 months.

He said as a banker, he is more interested in margin instead of absolute interest rates structure.

City-based Oriental Bank of Commerce CMD K N Prithviraj said he did not expect any major changes from the RBI.

However, interest rates are not the only factor in the Bank's functining, he said adding lending scenario in the economy is very good.