Can’t say when slowdown will end, says State Bank of India chairman

CHANDIGARH: While the Union government has nearly dismissed Moody’s move to downgrade India’s outlook to negative, State Bank of India (SBI) chairman Rajnish Kumar on Monday said it was difficult to say when will the economic standstill be over.
“There are several reasons for the slowdown, from the global downturn to policy reform transition,” the chief of India’s biggest bank said, adding that it was “difficult to predict when will the slowdown end”.
In October beginning, Kumar had pinned hopes on the festive season; on Monday, he said “some recovery” in consumer demand was seen since then, but it was sector and geography specific. Kumar said private sector investments were lagging.
The SBI chairman was in Chandigarh to inaugurate CSR initiatives launched by the bank.
Talking to TOI, he said SBI did not need to raise any capital as of now. Responding to another question, he said efforts were being made to revive credit demand and there was excessive liquidity in the system.
Responding to a question on the Punjab and Maharashtra Cooperative (PMC) Bank, Kumar said the state, the Centre and RBI should see what kind of business is given to such banks. “Rs100-200 crore loans should be the cap,” he added.
On the question of whether Moody’s downgrading India’s rating to negative from stable was going to affect the economy adversely, he said no such impact was visible so far.