New Delhi: The chances of any further reduction in home loan rates vanished, when RBI announced its monetary policy review yesterday. The RBI's move to hike the CRR by 50 basis points didn't surprise much as everybody was expecting such a step by the apex banking regulator to mop up the excess liquidity in the system.

However, there were clear indications by RBI, that it wants the current growth rate of economy to be maintained and therefore it didn't increase any of the lending rates. Despite the increase in CRR, lenders feel that there is ample liquidity in the system and this move will not lead to any increase in interest rates.

Many banks had offered festival discount on home loan interest rates because of this availability of surplus funds and the cost of funds being low.

HDFC vice-chairman and MD, Keki Mistry said, " Our lending rates are unlikely to go up on account of the hike in CRR."