The Hindu Business Line : Bank credit rises by Rs 17,993 cr

GROSS bank credit increased by Rs 17,993 crore for the fortnight ended February 3, 2006 to touch Rs 13,82,501 crore, according to the Reserve Bank of India's Weekly Statistical Supplement.

This is inclusive of food credit which increased by Rs 1,609 crore to touch Rs 39,952 crore and non-food credit which increased by Rs 16,384 crore to touch Rs 13,42,549 crore.

The total bank credit in 2006 so far is Rs 3,28,675 crore against Rs 2,43,048 crore for the comparable period in 2005.

With the GDP growth rate targeted at over 7.5 per cent, credit offtake is expected to rise.

According to a senior bank official, the last quarter is likely to see huge offtake as a lot of sanctions are pending.

"The infrastructure sector will see a lot of credit demand. Several proposals are yet to be sanctioned, which are likely to happen in the last quarter. Therefore the credit demand is likely to increase by about Rs 30,000-50,000 crore in this quarter," he said.

Forex up $ 452 m: The country saw an accretion to its foreign exchange reserves for the third consecutive week, according to statistics from the RBI.

As per the central bank's Weekly Statistical Supplement, foreign exchange reserves increased by $452 million to touch $140.429 billion, for the week ended February 10, as against $139.977 billon in the earlier week.

The modest rise in reserves can be attributed to the FII inflows, said the chief of treasury of a private bank. The total FII inflow into the domestic equity market was $497.9 million.

Foreign currency assets increased by $616 million to touch $133.991 billion.