Non-food bank credit grows 6.7% in August, shows Reserve Bank data

The non-food bank credit grew by 6.7 per cent in August 2021 as compared to 5.5 per cent in the year-ago month, RBI data showed.

Bank loans to agriculture and allied activities continued to perform well, registering an accelerated growth of 11.3 per cent in August 2021, as against 4.8 per cent in August 2020, the data showed.

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on Thursday released data pertaining to 'Sectoral Deployment of Bank Credit - August 2021'.

Credit to micro and small industries accelerated to 10.1 per cent in August 2021 from a contraction of 1.1 per cent a year ago.

 

Loans to large industries contracted by 1.7 per cent, compared to a growth of 0.5 per cent in August 2020, as per the data.

Credit growth to the services sector moderated to 3.5 per cent in August 2021 from 10.9 per cent earlier, mainly due to contraction in credit growth to NBFCs and commercial real estate.

Personal loans registered an accelerated growth of 12.1 per cent as against 8.5 per cent a year ago, primarily due to faster credit growth in housing, vehicle loans and loans against gold jewellery.

Separately, RBI also released a report on 'Outstanding Credit of Scheduled Commercial Banks for June 2021 quarter'.

Bank credit growth on a year-on-year basis edged up to 5.8 per cent in June 2021 from 5.1 per cent a quarter ago, the data showed.

Personal loans growth increased to 14.8 per cent on a yearly basis after some moderation since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. Its share in bank credit increased to 26.6 per cent in June 2021 compared to 24.5 per cent a year ago and 18.9 per cent five years back.

Bank credit to the industrial sector continued to decline, resulted in further lowering of its share in total credit to 28.6 per cent (30.8 per cent a year ago and 40.7 per cent five years ago).

Credit to individuals in the household sector continued to rise. Their share in total loans increased to 43.3 per cent from 34.2 per cent five years ago, the data showed.

Female borrowers had nearly 22 per cent share in the amount of credit to individuals.

Working capital loans (such as cash credit, overdraft and demand loans) accounted for a third of total credit and followed the seasonal contraction in the first quarter of the current financial year. Their annual growth, nevertheless, turned positive in the latest quarter.

With their faster credit growth, private sector banks have increased their share in total credit to 36.6 per cent from 25.7 per cent five years ago, at the cost of public sector banks whose share declined from 69.0 per cent to 58.1 per cent over the same period.