New Delhi: The automobile industry, pounded by higher interest rates, today expressed disappointment over RBI's decision to keep rates unchanged saying it would be a challenge to reverse negative growth trend witnessed by the sector without government support.

"The two wheeler and commercial vehicles segment have been affected by high interest rates... The auto sector was looking forward to some changes in the rates," Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (SIAM) Director General Dilip Chenoy told PTI.

He said unavailability of finance had impacted greatly the two wheeler segment, which was already witnessing a negative growth compared to the previous fiscal. "It will be a challenge to change the negative trend unless there is some support from the government," Chenoy added.

Echoing similar views, Suzuki Motorcycles India Vice-President (Sales and Marketing) Atul Gupta said, "With the interest rates remaining the same, the two wheeler industry, especially the motorcycles segment will remain sluggish".

It would be tough for the industry in the next 12 months, already the unavailability of finance has hurt a lot, he added. "Some rate cuts and measure to spur demand would have helped," Gupta said.

Bajaj Auto CEO (Two-Wheelers) S Sridhar said the issue of unavailability of finance needed to be addressed and a slight cut in interest rates would not have mattered much. "What the sector need is a prolonged support over a period of time to overcome the de-growth," he said.

Sridhar, however, said considering RBI's main agenda was to contain inflation there was not much of expectation from the central bank on rate cuts.

Source : PTI