Month: April 2021

The Data on sectoral deployment of bank credit collected from select 33 scheduled commercial banks, accounting for about 90 per cent of the total non-food credit deployed by all scheduled commercial banks for the month of March 2021, are set out in Statements I and II.

Highlights of the sectoral deployment of bank credit are given below:

• On a year-on-year (y-o-y) basis, non-food bank credit growth stood at 4.9 per cent in March 2021 as compared to 6.7 per cent in March 2020.

• Continuing its uptrend, credit growth to agriculture and allied activities accelerated to 12.3 per cent in March 2021 from 4.2 per cent in March 2020.

• Credit growth to industry decelerated marginally to 0.4 per cent in March 2021 from 0.7 per cent in March 2020. However, credit to medium industries registered a robust growth of 28.8 per cent in March 2021 as compared to a contraction of 0.7 per cent a year ago. Credit growth to micro and small industries decelerated to 0.5 per cent in March 2021 from 1.7 per cent a year ago, while credit to large industries contracted by 0.8 per cent as compared to a growth of 0.6 per cent a year ago.

• Within industry, credit to ‘food processing’, ‘textiles’, ‘gems & jewellery’, ‘paper & paper products’, ‘glass & glassware’, ‘wood & wood products’ and ‘leather & leather products’ registered accelerated growth in March 2021 as compared to the corresponding month of the previous year. However, credit growth to ‘mining & quarrying’, ‘rubber, plastic & their products’, ‘vehicle, vehicle parts & transport equipment’, ‘basic metal & metal products’, ‘cement & cement products’, ‘all engineering’, ‘chemical & chemical products’ and ‘construction’ decelerated/contracted.

• Credit growth to the services sector decelerated to 1.4 per cent in March 2021 from 7.4 per cent in March 2020, mainly due to deceleration in credit growth to NBFCs and contraction in credit to professional services. However, credit to trade segment continued to perform well, registering accelerated growth of 11.8 per cent in March 2021 as compared to 4.6 per cent a year ago.

• Slowdown in growth of personal loans continued, as it decelerated to 10.2 per cent in March 2021 from 15.0 per cent a year ago. However, vehicle loans and loans against gold jewellery continued to perform well during the month, registering accelerated growth.

(Yogesh Dayal)     
Chief General Manager

Press Release: 2021-2022/142

Rupambara
Director    

Press Release: 2021-2022/141

The Governor, Reserve Bank of India (RBI) held a meeting with the MD/CEOs of Small Finance Banks on April 30, 2021 through video conference. The meeting was attended by Deputy Governors Shri M. K. Jain, Dr. M.D. Patra, Shri M. Rajeswar Rao and a few other senior officials of RBI.

In his opening remarks, the Governor recognised the important role of the SFBs in delivering credit and other financial services to individuals and small businesses. He also emphasised the supervisory expectations in terms of maintaining their business resilience and managing risks prudently. He advised the banks to pay focussed attention on improving customer grievance redress process while also strengthening IT systems in the interest of the banks and their customers.

Among other matters, the following issues were discussed in the meeting.

1. Assessment of current economic situation;

2. Credit flows to different segments of borrowers;

3. Outlook on potential stress on banks’ balance sheets;

4. Liquidity scenario.

(Yogesh Dayal)     
Chief General Manager

Press Release: 2021-2022/140