By IANS
New Delhi : State-run banks in India were Tuesday asked to step up retail credit, especially the loans on housing and consumer durables, in a bid to push up the overall economic growth of the country.
“There is a feeling adequate credit is not being provided to the housing sector and consumer durables sector,” Chidambaram told reporters here, after a meeting with the chief executives of state-run banks.
“They are the drivers of the economy,” he added.
“The slowing down of credit has indeed, to some extent, affected flow of credit to the housing sector and consumer durables sector,” he said, adding this had not affected the flow of advances to productive sectors.
Statistics available with the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) showed that credit of scheduled commercial banks during the year, as on Jan 25, grew 22.6 percent, as against 29.8 percent in the like month of last fiscal.
The finance minister said that banks also have to look at their interest rates, even as some commercial banks like HDFC Bank, Canara Bank, Bank of India, Bank of Maharashtra and the State Bank of India had cut their rates recently.