New Delhi: Country's largest public sector lender State Bank of India today said that it does not expect the interest rates to go up in the short term.

"I do not see them (interest rates) rising in the near future," State Bank of India Chairman O P Bhatt told reporters here.

The Reserve Bank of India while announcing Annual Credit Policy for 2008-09 had hiked the Cash Reserve Ratio (the percentage of deposits that commercial banks maintain with the Reserve Bank) by 25 basis points to 8.25 per cent.

Prior to this, the apex bank on April 17 had announced a hike in CRR by 50 basis points in two phases to contain inflationary expectations.
Source : PTI