Stressful interest rates likely to impact growth aspirations: FM

Union Commerce Minister Piyush Goyoll lost week urged the RBI to cut interest roltes to boost economic growth

Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Monday said people are finding current interest rates "very stressful," and urged banks to make them affordable.

Speaking at an event organised by SBI, the finance minister said that at present, India requires industry to ramp up and invest in new facilities, and added that lowering lending rates can help achieve the "Viksit Bharat," aspiration.

"What is important is when you look at India's growth requirements, and you can have so many different voices coming out and saying the cost of borrowing is really very stressful, and a time when we want industries to ramp up and move (to) building capacities, bank interest rates will have to be far more affordable,), Sitharaman said.

Union Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal last week urged the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) to cut interest rates to boost economic growth. He also suggested looking through food prices while deciding on monetary policy.

It can be noted that most of the commercial banks are tied directly or indirectly to the RBFS calls on interest rates, with the majority of loans using the repo rate as an external bench-mark to which loan prices are pegged.