The prevailing high interest rates are impeding the growth of the industrial sector, a top bank official has said.
Speaking to reporters on the sidelines of a CII meet in Kolkata on Monday, ICICI Bank MD and CEO K V Kamath said the light engineering and transportation sectors had already been hit following a slump in sales of commercial vehicles due to high rates. The mortgage-based finance which is interlinked with these sectors wil
l see a slowdown, he added.
The SME sector is another segment which had been hit due to high rates, he said.
Pitching for a cut in rates, he said if the interest rates did not come down then the country's competitiveness itself would be eroded due to high input costs.
He said liquidity was not a problem for the country and is freely available.
The exchange rate movements would have to be monitored too, he said.