In April, bank credit to industry slowed to 7%: RBI
According to Reserve Bank statistics, the growth of bank lending to industry slowed to 7% in April 2023 from the similar month the year before.
Personal loans increased by 19.4% (y-o-y) in April 2023 compared to 14.4% a year earlier, according to the Sectoral Deployment of Bank Credit – April 2023 of the RBI. This rise was primarily driven by housing and automobile loans.
Loans for agricultural and related operations increased from 10.6% in April of last year to 16.7% in April of this year.
According to the report, “Credit to industry registered a growth of 7% (y-o-y) in April 2023 as compared to 8% in April 2022.”
In terms of size, loans to major industry increased by 5.3% compared to 1.3% a year before. Medium-sized business credit growth was 19.1%, down from last year’s 53.7 percent. In April 2023, credit to micro and small businesses increased by 9.7% compared to a year earlier when it increased by 29.8%.
According to the RBI, among the main sectors, loan growth (y-o-y) to “basic metal & metal products” and “petroleum, coal products & nuclear fuels” increased in April 2023 in comparison to the same month the year before.
Credit growth for the industries of “chemicals & chemical products,” “food processing,” “infrastructure,” and “textiles” slowed down.
In April 2023, bank credit growth to the services sector increased from 11.2 to 21.6 percent yearly, principally as a result of increased credit offtake by non-banking financial organisations and commerce.
According to the RBI, information on the sectoral use of bank credit in April was gathered from 40 specific commercial banks, which together accounted for nearly 93% of the total amount of non-food credit used by all banks.
