Growth of bank credit to industry decelerates in April to 7%: RBI

Growth of bank credit to industry decelerated to 7 per cent in April 2023 as compared to the corresponding month in the previous year, according to Reserve Bank data.

The Sectoral Deployment of Bank Credit April 2023 of the RBI also said personal loans growth registered a growth of 19.4 per cent (y-o-y) in April 2023 as against 14.4 per cent a year ago, mainly driven by housing and vehicle loans.

Loan to agriculture and allied activities improved to 16.7 per cent (y-o-y) in April 2023 from 10.6 per cent a year ago.

"Credit to industry registered a growth of 7 per cent (y-o-y) in April 2023 as compared with 8 per cent in April 2022," it said.

Size-wise, credit to large industry rose by 5.3 per cent as compared with 1.3 per cent a year ago. Credit growth of medium industries was 19.1 per cent as against 53.7 per cent last year. Credit to micro and small industries registered a growth of 9.7 per cent in April 2023 (29.8 per cent a year ago).

RBI further said among major industries, credit growth (y-o-y) to 'basic metal & metal products' and 'petroleum, coal products & nuclear fuels' accelerated in April 2023 as compared with the corresponding month of the previous year.

Credit growth to 'chemicals & chemical products', 'food processing', 'infrastructure' and 'textiles' decelerated.

Bank credit growth to the services sector accelerated to 21.6 per cent annually in April 2023 from 11.2 per cent a year ago, primarily due to the improved credit offtake to non-banking financial companies and trade.

RBI said data on sectoral deployment of bank credit for April was collected from 40 select commercial banks, accounting for about 93 per cent of the total non-food credit deployed by all banks.