Enthused by government's commitment to act proactively and ensure more liquidity to promote economic growth, ICICI Bank Managing Director K V Kamath today promised to review interest rates in the next few days.
"We will review interest rates after watching the impact of RBI decision on liquidity. Finance Minister P Chidambaram has also said he will talk to PSU banks tomorrow," Kamath, who is also the President of CII, told PTI after meeting Chidambaram along with heads of FICCI and Assocham.
Confident that the economy would still grow by eight per cent this year, he said this would require liquidity, high morale and containment of inflation and "the government is willing to act 24X7 earnestly".
He said: "As a banker I say this... The government cannot actually on its part lower rates. The banks have to lower interest rates."
Kamath, Ficci President Rajeev Chandrasekhar and Assocham Chief Sajjan Jindal met Chidambaram, shortwhile after the Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's meeting with the industrialists to take forward the growth agenda.
Emerging from the meeting, Jindal said: "Finance Minster has assured that there would be enough liquidity while containing inflation... There will be enough liquidity to see that demand flow starts."
Pointing out that there is a need for a steep cut in interest rates if the country has to achieve a growth of 8 per cent, Kamath said, "It is the interest rate that will drive this growth."