Propelled by higher growth in loans to sectors such as services, personal loans and industry, banks' non-food credit deployment saw a growth of 11.6 per cent in the financial year so far, compared with 5.9 per cent growth in the corresponding period last year.

In absolute terms, the pick up in non-food credit, comprising four sub-segments – agriculture & allied activities, industry, services, and personal loans – was more than double at Rs 3,51,853 crore in the March 26 to December 17, 2010 period as against Rs 1,52,600 crore in the March 27 to December 18, 2009 period, according to the RBI's data on deployment of credit by major sectors.

Credit to the priority sector grew to a robust 7.1 per cent (0.8 per cent). In absolute terms, credit to this sector rose almost 10 times by Rs 77,614 crore (Rs 7,802 crore).

Under the non-food credit head, the services sector and personal loans saw a healthy growth of 13.8 per cent (2.4 per cent in the corresponding period last year) and 9.6 per cent (0.6 per cent) respectively. Credit to the industry saw a growth of 14.5 per cent (11.8 per cent). The agriculture & allied activities sub-segment, however, saw a deceleration in credit growth to 1.2 per cent (2.8 per cent).

In the case of priority sector lending, the growth in credit has been propelled by micro-credit (36.7 per cent as against 14.6 per cent) and export credit (4.6 per cent as against -18.9 per cent). The agriculture & allied activities sub-head under priority sector lending saw a deceleration in credit growth to 1.2 per cent, compared with 2.8 per cent.

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