Non-food bank credit grows at 6.9% in October, shows RBI data

Non-food credit growth of banks accelerated to 6.9 per cent in October as against 5.2 per cent in the same month of last year, the RBI data showed.

Loans to agriculture and allied activities continued to perform well, registering an accelerated growth of 10.2 per cent in October 2021 as compared to 7.2 per cent in October 2020, according to the RBI's Sectoral Deployment of Bank Credit October 2021 data, released on Tuesday.

The growth in credit to industry picked up to 4.1 per cent in October 2021 from a contraction of 0.7 per cent in October 2020.

Size-wise, credit to medium industries registered a robust growth of 48.6 per cent in October 2021 as compared to 20.8 per cent last year.

Advances to micro and small industries accelerated to 11.9 per cent in October 2021 from 0.7 per cent a year ago. Credit growth to large industries stood at 0.5 per cent in October 2021 as compared to a contraction of 1.8 per cent a year ago, the data showed.

Slowdown in credit growth of services continued, as it decelerated to 2.9 per cent in October from 8.6 per cent a year ago.

Personal loans continued to grow at a robust rate of 11.7 per cent in October 2021 vis-a-vis 8.7 per cent in October 2020 primarily due to housing, vehicle loans and loans against gold jewellery, the data showed.