Scheduled commercial banks (SCBs) extended Rs 3,604 crore by way of non-food credit and invested Rs 15,739 crore in government securities in the fortnight ended June 28.
Figures put out by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) in its latest weekly statistical supplement (WSS) shows that corporate appetite for credit is showing signs of a pick up after growing by a meagre Rs 71 crore in the previous fortnight and declining by Rs 35 crore in the fortnight ended May 31.
Non-food credit extended by the SCBs in the financial year so far was at Rs 55,189 crore as against a decline of Rs 2,367 crore in the corresponding period in the previous financial year. Food credit from the SCBs was at Rs 562 crore in the reporting fortnight.
In the financial year so far, credit under this head was at Rs 7,030 crore as against Rs 10,349 crore in the corresponding year-ago period. The outstanding bank credit as on June 28 was at Rs 6,48,050 crore.
Investments made by the SCBs in the previous fortnight ended June 14 came down by Rs 2,269 crore as against an increase of Rs 15,739 crore in the reporting fortnight.
In the financial year so far, investments made by the SCBs in gilts were higher at Rs 46,598 crore as against Rs 24,213 crore in the corresponding year-ago period.
Aggregate deposits of the SCBs were up by Rs 6,676 crore in the reporting fortnight. Demand deposits and time deposits, which form part of the aggregate deposits, increased by Rs 2,047 crore and Rs 4,628 crore respectively.
In the financial year so far, aggregate deposits more than doubled to Rs 1,03,512 crore as against Rs 54,171 crore in the corresponding year ago period.
Loans and advances (also known as ways and means advances) extended by the RBI to the Centre stood at Rs 11,069 crore as on July 5, as against Rs 7,648 crore as on June 28.
The government has announced a twin-auction aggregating Rs 10,000 crore for Wednesday to bring down the ways and means advances within the permissible limits of Rs 10,000 crore.
Meanwhile, foreign exchange reserves of the country crossed the $58 billion mark in the week ended July 5. The reserves were up by $43 million in the reporting week. In the previous week the reserves were up by a whopping $896 million.
The increase in forex reserves was on account of the gold reserves rising $81 million. Foreign currency assets and special drawing rights declined by $37 million and $1 million respectively in the week to July 5.
