Non-food credit demand rises by 10.7% in April 2018: RBI

Credit to agriculture and allied activities increased by 5.9% in April as compared with an increase of 7.4 per cent in the same month of the previous year

Non-food credit demand rose by 10.7 per cent in April 2018 as against an increase of 4.5 per cent during the same period last year, according to data released by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on Thursday. Non-food credit for the month of April stood at Rs 75,804 billion. 

Credit to agriculture and allied activities increased by 5.9 per cent in April as compared with an increase of 7.4 per cent in the same month of the previous year.

Credit growth for the industry was muted and only increased by one per cent in April 2018 as compared with a contraction of 1.4 per cent during the same period last year. Credit to medium enterprises grew the most by 3.6 per cent over the previous year. “Credit to major sub-sectors such as textiles, engineering, food processing, construction and rubber, plastic & their products accelerated,” said RBI.

However, credit to infrastructure, basic metal & metal products, chemicals & chemical products, gems & jewellery and cement & cement products contracted,” said the RBI in a statement.  

Credit to the services sector increased by 20.7 per cent in April 2018. This is a four-fold increase as against the same period last year.

Personal loans also increased by 19.1 per cent in April 2018 as compared with an increase of 14.4 per cent in April 2017, with credit cards, housing loans and loans against fixed deposits seeing the strongest growth.