High interest rate is hurting the common man and the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) should cut interest rate gradually to spur economic growth, ICICI Bank Non-executive Chairman K V Kamath has said.
“I would think that we cannot dismantle rate which is very high. We have to do it gradually ... To kick-start demand at the hands of retails individual that’s where large part of growth would come from,” Kamath said in an interview to private news channel CNBC TV18.
RBI raised interest rates 13 times between March 2010 and October 2011 to stem rising inflation. “But, let me take one issue which I think is really the cause of a large part of what is perceived as a slowdown. And that is interest rates. The interest rate, where it is today, is hurting the common man. It is hurting the lay individual,” he said. “And that’s what is translating into lack of demand and a pressure in terms of the companies,” he added.
