NEW DELHI (Dow Jones)--Indian Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee said Saturday that the central bank's recent hike in lending and borrowing rates is unlikely to impact the lending rates of banks.

""I don't think so,"" Mukherjee told reporters after a meeting with chiefs of state-run banks.
""Banks are fully aware of it...have taken note of it and adjusted their plan
[on raising interest rates],"" he said, adding the ministry doesn't give any direction to state-run banks on interest rates.
Including the latest rate hike on July 27, the central bank in 2010 has raised its lending rate by one percentage point and the borrowing rate by 1.25 percentage points to tame inflation that remains in double-digits.
""Of course it
[inflation] is a concern,"" Mukherjee said.
India's wholesale price index-based inflation rate for July is expected at 10.36% from a year earlier, easing from a 10.55% reading in June, as per the median estimate in a Dow Jones Newswires poll of 15 economists.
India's commerce ministry is scheduled to release inflation data at 0600 GMT Monday.
The minister said also that loans to the farm sector are likely to cross INR4 trillion this fiscal year, compared to the target of INR3.75 trillion set in the federal budget.