Mukherjee to meet bank CEOs today

New Delhi, Feb. 2 (ANI): External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee will meet the public sector bank CEOs here today to evaluate third quarter performance, loan disbursal and the impact of the stimulus packages announced by the government.

Mukherjee is currently handling the finance portfolio. The meeting comes in the wake of the third quarterly review of monetary policy by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI).

The RBI had noted that most banks have reduced lending and deposit rates to some extent, but some banks have not cut them so far.

Mukherjee is expected to ask banks to relieve the interest rates to boost the demand.

"The agenda of the meeting includes review of credit flow and status of implementation of the packages announced for stimulating the economy," a Finance Ministry statement has said.

The government and the PSU banks have taken many steps to raise the demands to boost the economy.

They include reducing interest rates for housing loans of up to 20 lakh rupees and opening the refinance window for commercial banks.

The RBI had also cut the short-term lending (repo) rate to deal with the slowdown in the economy. (ANI)