The country's biggest private home loan lender, Housing Development Finance Corporation (HDFC) Bank said that the bank' lending rates may rise by 50-100 basis points by the end of this fiscal.

However, as the credit growth continues to be low, banks might marginally soften their lending rates.

The central bank aims to accelerate the loan growth-rate to 20 percent for the current fiscal year from the ongoing rate of 16 percent.

The Reserve Bank of India has already given signal towards inching up of inflation. The regulator has already raised its forecasts for wholesale price inflation (WPI) to 5 percent by end March 2010.

Against this, the mortgager expects the WPI inflation to hover around the 7-7.5 percent by the end of this fiscal.

For the first quarter (2009-10) review of monetary policy, the Reserve Bank has kept its prime lending rates and reverse repo rate unchanged.

The Consumer Price Indices also continues at high level, ranging from 8.6 percent to 11.5 percent for various consumer price indices of the current fiscal.

The bank has forecasted a GDP growth rate at 6.5 percent for the current financial year. In a survey conducted earlier in March, the bank had forecasted a growth rate of 5.7 percent for the same period.