Non-food bank credit growth decelerates to 5.6% in October: Report

Non-food credit growth decelerated to 5.6 per cent in October 2020 compared to a growth of 8.3 per cent in the same month of the previous year, RBI data showed. Growth in loans to agriculture and allied activities accelerated to 7.4 per cent in the reporting month from a growth of 7.1 per cent last year, the data on Sectoral Deployment of Bank Credit - September 2020, released by the Reserve Bank of India, showed.

Credit to industry contracted by 1.7 per cent in October 2020 as compared with 3.4 per cent growth in October 2019. This was mainly on the back of contraction in credit to large industries by 2.9 per cent in October 2020 (4.2 per cent growth a year ago), though credit to medium industries registered a robust growth of 16.7 per cent in October 2020 (1.2 per cent a year ago), the RBI said.

Within industry, credit to food processing, petroleum, coal products & nuclear fuels, leather & leather products, paper & paper products and vehicles, vehicle parts & transport equipment registered accelerated growth in October 2020 as compared with the growth in the corresponding month of the previous year.

However, credit growth to beverage & tobacco, rubber plastic & their products, chemical & chemical products, cement & cement products, all engineering, gems & jewellery, infrastructure and construction decelerated/contracted, the data showed.

In September 2020, credit to industry recorded nil growth.

Growth in credit to the services sector accelerated to 9.5 per cent in October 2020 from 6.5 per cent in the same month of the previous year. Within this sector, credit to professional services, computer software and trade registered accelerated growth in October 2020 vis-a-vis the growth in the corresponding month of the previous year.

In the reporting month, personal loans registered a decelerated growth of 9.3 per cent as compared with 17.2 per cent growth in October 2019. Within this sector, vehicle loans continued to perform well, registering accelerated growth of 8.4 per cent in October 2020 vis-a-vis a growth of 5 per cent in October 2019.