Credit portfolio of the banking sector, on the back of industrial slowdown, continued to go down. During the fortnight ended on May 4, the credit off-take fell of the sector by Rs 1,713 crore (0.3 per cent) to Rs 5,17,560 crore. Credit off-take would have dipped more but for Rs 6,990 crore increase in the food-credit to Rs 43,097 crore. The non-food credit fell by Rs 8,702 crore to Rs 4,74,463 crore.
On a year-on-year (YOY) basis, the growth in the credit till May 4 was at 16.8 per cent compared with 20.3 per cent during the corresponding period of the previous year.
The deposit base of the scheduled commercial banks went up by Rs 1,463 crore (0.1 per cent) to Rs 9,91,318 crore during the fortnight. Demand deposits fell by Rs 3,193 crore, while the time deposits increased by Rs 4,657 crore to Rs 8,46,819 crore.
Even on YOY basis, the deposit growth was higher than the growth last year. The growth till May 4 was 18.6 per cent, while the growth during the corresponding period of the last year was lower at 16.4 per cent.
Ways-and-means advances (WMA) to the Central government by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) fell marginally by Rs 997 crore during the week ended on May 11 to Rs 8,112 crore.
The WMA touched Rs 9,109 crore on May 4, initiating the auction of Rs 4,000 crore 10.47 per cent 2015 government paper. However, as the figure remained high over Rs 8,000 crore, analysts expect another auction of Rs 4,000 crore or more of government paper is on the cards. The loans and advances paid to the state governments fell by Rs 1,337 crore during the week to Rs 3,148 crore.
Foreign exchange reserves of the central bank went down marginally by $44 million to $42.738 billion during the week. The dip in the reserves was fully on account decrease in the foreign currency assets of the RBI. Foreign currency assets came down by $44 million to $40.033 billion.
Economists feel that it is the slight weakening of rupee that caused the marginal fall. However, gold and special drawing rights reserves remained unchanged at $2.695 billion and $10 billion, respectively.
Money supply, measured in terms M3, went up by Rs 6,577 crore (0.5 per cent) to Rs 13,54,855 crore during the fortnight ended on May 4. Money supply grew by 17.4 per cent YOY till May 4 compared with 15.3 per cent growth during the corresponding period of the last year. Net bank credit to the government sector went up by Rs 4,471 crore (0.8 per cent) to Rs 5,34,741 crore, while the bank credit to the commercial sector fell by Rs 1,867 crore (0.3 per cent) to Rs 11,141 crore.
