Despite economic down turn and tight monetary situation, the country’s largest private sector lender, ICICI Bank, expects the retail portfolio to grow by 5-10% during the financial year 2008-09, said Chanda Kochhar, joint managing director of ICICI Bank.
Kochhar said that high interest rates might affect ICICI Bank’s growth rate, however, its strong corporate portfolio would help the bank to get an overall credit growth of 15-16%, she said. Kochhar said the bank’s corporate pipeline is still strong which would help in better growth. On asking if interest rates will start softening, she said, “Its too early to say if interest rates will come down.?
ICICI expects a GDP growth of 7.5-8% for financial year 2008-09. “We must understand that there are challenges and opportunities in the economy. Clearly, policy measures are used as tools to manage the challenges. The RBI has projected that inflation would be brought down by March,” Kochhar said.
During the monetary policy on July 31, the central bank said they aim to bring down inflation to 7% by March 2009.Under the microfinance portfolio, ICICI Bank has covered more than 3 million customers.