The slump in industrial growth has taken its toll. The non-food credit offtake of the Indian banking industry in the first quarter of the current fiscal posted a negative growth of Rs 3,126 crore, down from Rs 16,485 crore in the corresponding period of the previous fiscal.
On a year-on-year (y-o-y) basis, non-food credit offtake halved to Rs 41,564 crore from Rs 83,546 crore in the last year.
Food credit, however, went up by Rs 10,349 crore in April-June, 2001 to Rs 50,340 crore. Food credit increased by Rs 7,491 crore in the corresponding period of the last year. The total credit growth of scheduled commercial banks dipped to Rs 7,223 crore (1.4 per cent) during the first quarter of the fiscal as against Rs 23,976 crore (5.5 per cent) during the corresponding period of the last fiscal.
Though there has been no demand for credit, the failure of mutual funds in offering high returns has triggered massive growth in deposits. The deposit base of the banking industry grew by Rs 50,456 crore (5.2 per cent) -- much higher than the Rs 40,561 crore growth posted in 2000-01.
On a y-o-y basis, aggregate deposits grew by Rs 1,59,168 crore as against Rs 1,23,851 crore during the corresponding period of the fiscal. Aggregate deposit outstanding of the banking industry stood at Rs 10,13,074 core as on June 29.
The imbalance between the deposit and credit growth led the banks to invest more even though the interest rate continued to go down. The investment portfolio of the banking industry grew by 23,967 crore during the first quarter of the current fiscal to Rs 3,94,126 crore. The growth during the corresponding period of the last financial year was Rs 18,839 crore.
The y-o-y growth of the investment till June 29 stood at Rs 66,252 crore as against Rs 51,347 crore during the corresponding period of the last year.
Foreign exchange reserves of the Reserve Bank of India rose by $ 1.174 billion to $ 43.455 billion during the first three months. Foreign currency assets went up by $1,240 billion to $40.794 billion, while gold reserves increased by $91 million.
Special drawing rights reserves were up by $2 million. On a y-o-y basis, the foreign exchange reserves of the central bank went up by $6.725 billion.
The higher expenditure of the Central government pushed the ways and means advances (WMA) figure over the limit of Rs 10,000 crore for the sixth time in the current fiscal. WMA went up by Rs 8,253 during the week ended on July 6 to Rs 17,267 crore. Loans and advances to the state governments increased by Rs 1,221 crore to Rs 4,824 crore during the week.
Money supply growth on a y-o-y basis was higher at 16.8 per cent till June 29 as compared to a growth of 16 per cent during the corresponding period.
