MUMBAI— State Bank of India, 500112.BY -1.92% the country's largest lender by assets, Wednesday said interest rates it charges on floating-rate loans will increase from Thursday.
 
The base rate, which serves as a benchmark for pricing floating-rate loans, has been raised to 10.0% from 9.8%, while the benchmark prime lending rate has been increased to 14.75% from 14.55%, the bank said in a news release. 

The prime lending rate is the benchmark for floating-rate loans made before Indian banks shifted to the base rate in July, 2010. 

HDFC Bank Ltd. 500180.BY -0.94% , another large Indian bank, has also raised its base rate by 0.2 percentage point to 10.0% from Nov. 2. 
 
The rate increases come after India's central bank last week raised its main lending rate by a quarter percentage point for the second time in as many months. 

The central bank said the rate increases were in response to a pickup in inflation in recent months as a steep fall in the value of the rupee currency has made imported goods more expensive. 

Analysts say rising interest rates would make it tougher for economic growth to pick up—the economy grew 5.0% in the last fiscal year ended March 31, its slowest rate in a decade.