Ahead of festive season, retail credit growth nears 20% in August

In the run-up to the festive season, credit off-take across all sectors — farming, industry, services and retail — was robust in August 2022 compared to the same period a year ago. 

The pace of retail credit — demand from households and individuals — was 19.5 per cent year-on-year (YoY) in August 2022. 

The figure was 12.8 per cent in August 2021. Reserve Bank of India (RBI) data showed that credit to industry — small, medium and large — registered 11.4 per cent growth against a mere 1.5 per cent growth in August 2021. 

Credit growth to the services sector accelerated to 17.2 per cent in August 2022 from just 2.1 per cent a year ago. It was mainly due to improved credit off-take to NBFCs and trade sectors. 

Credit to agriculture and allied activities remained robust at 13.4 per cent YoY in August 2022 compared to 13 per cent a year ago.

As per a RBI report, public sector banks have 50 per cent share in incremental credit disbursed as of September 9, 2022, followed by private sector banks with 47.1 per cent share. In the same period last year , public sector banks had 19.5 per cent share in incremental credit and private sector banks had almost 70 per cent share.