HDFC Bank sees signs of rural revival as wider economy remains sluggish

For HDFC Bank, the weaker economy had led to a slowdown in loan growth, which eased to 15 per cent in the September quarter from 23 per cent a year earlier

HDFC Bank, India’s most valuable lender by market capitalisation, sees tentative signs of a revival in rural areas at a time when the wider economy is sputtering.

“The recent loan outreach programs underway in rural areas have given us the sense that the consumption in rural and semi-urban areas is turning more positive,” HDFC Bank Executive Director Kaizad Bharucha said in an interview last week. As of end-September, 52 per cent of the bank’s outlets were in rural and semi-urban India, a part of the economy that accounts for at least half of the national output.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government has