Non-food bank credit registered a year-on-year (y-o-y) growth of 8.3 per cent in January 2022, much above the 5.9 per cent level a year ago, with credit to industry witnessing a robust pick up, even as credit to agriculture and allied activities and personal loans gathered pace.

Credit growth to industry improved to 6.4 per cent in January 2022 from 0.7 per cent in January 2021, per Reserve Bank of India (RBI) data on Sectoral Deployment of Bank Credit.

Within industry, credit to medium industries registered high double-digit growth of 74.7 per cent in January 2022, compared to 21.8 per cent last year.

Credit growth to micro and small industries accelerated to 19.7 per cent from 0.5 per cent.

Credit to large industries recorded a marginal growth of 0.5 per cent, against a contraction of 0.2 per cent during the same period.

The central bank said credit to agriculture and allied activities continued to perform well, registering an accelerated growth of 10.4 per cent in January 2022, compared to 8.5 per cent in January 2021.

Personal loans

Personal loans segment continued to expand at a robust rate and grew by 11.6 per cent in January 2022 from 8.7 per cent a year ago, it added.

Credit growth to services sector was lower at 7.3 per cent in January 2022, compared to 8.1 per cent a year ago.

The RBI said credit growth to services sector was mainly due to significant improvement in credit growth to ‘non-banking finance companies’, along with ‘transport operators’ and ‘tourism, hotels and restaurants’.

The central bank’s data on sectoral deployment of bank credit is collected from select 39 scheduled commercial banks, accounting for about 92 per cent of the total non-food credit deployed by all scheduled commercial banks,

With an increase in credit demand and lower accretion in aggregate deposits, banks have started pricing in their deposits at higher rates in recent months.

Published on February 28, 2022