Aggregate Deposits With Scbs Decline By Rs 1213 Crore

Aggregate deposits with scheduled commercial banks (SCBs), which have seen a steady rise in the last six months, have declined by Rs 1,213 crore during the fortnight ended October 19, 2001.

Aggregate deposits now stand at Rs 10,49,300 crore compared with Rs 10,50,513 crore in the previous fortnight ended October 5.

The last time deposits with SCBs fell was during the fortnight ended April 20, 2001, when they declined by Rs 3,519 crore over the previous fortnight to Rs 9,89,855 crore.

Analysts attribute the decline in the deposits with SCBs to investors not being happy with the single-digit interest rates being offered by most of these banks.

In a falling interest rate scenario, investors seem to be showing interest in pension funds and mutual funds in the hope of getting better returns, they said.

After the stock market scam and the UTI fiasco, investors flocked to the banks for safety resulting in the aggregate deposits with SCBs burgeoning by Rs 86,682 crore in the financial year, so far, compared with Rs 77,159 crore in the same period of the previous fiscal.

In the fortnight ended October 19, though time deposits with SCBs rose by Rs 897 crore to Rs 9,07,017 crore, the demand deposits declined by Rs 2,110 crore to Rs 1,42,283 crore.

On the non-food credit front also the situation is not too rosy. Though the non-food credit in the previous fortnight ended October 5 went up by Rs 11,242 crore and revived hopes of pick-up in the economy, figures for the current fortnight at Rs 1,509 crore does not point to any revival.

The non-food credit in the financial year, so far, has grown only by Rs 22,403 crore compared with Rs 34,014 crore in the corresponding period of the previous fiscal.

The foreign exchange reserves increased by $24 million during the week ended October 26 over the previous week to $45.161 billion.

The rise in the reserves was solely on account of rise in the foreign currency assets by $25 million to $42.227 billion. While the gold reserves remained unchanged at $ 2.925 billion, the special drawing rights came down by $ 1 million to $9 million.