State Bank of India today raised its base rates by 0.25 per cent to 9.5 per cent. SBI's move to raise rates comes on the back of ICICI Bank raising rates by the same percentage last week. SBI is India's largest bank while ICICI Bank is the second largest. SBI has also hiked the savings deposit rate by 1 per cent across all deposits giving some relief to small investors. The new rates will be effective from July 11 this year. The base rate is the minimum rate at which banks can lend. With the base rate going up, home loan rates are also likely to move up.