Bank credit grew 16.2 per cent, year-on-year, to Rs 48.6 lakh crore, while deposits swelled 13.7 per cent to Rs 64.34lakh crore for the fortnight ended November 2, according to data released by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on Thursday.
The incremental credit grew by Rs 43,813 crore, while deposits grew by Rs 47,211 crore during the fortnight.
However, on a year-to-date (YTD) basis from April, the loan growth was 5.4 per cent, compared with 6.1 per cent in the similar period last year. Deposit growth was nine per cent, compared to 8.6 per cent on a YTD basis. The first half of the current financial year has been sluggish in terms of credit growth. But bankers expect the second half to be better. In the second-quarter monetary policy review held last month, the RBI had revised the credit growth projection downwards to 16 per cent from 17 per cent projected in April and July. However, deposit growth projection was kept unchanged at 15 per cent. Due to subdued demand from industry, banks have been focusing on retail credit in the current financial year. While announcing half-yearly results, SBI chairman Pratip Chaudhuri said that the bank had collected deposits worth Rs 90,000 crore so far in the current financial year, but was able to deploy only Rs 40,000 crore.
