Bank Credit Declines To Rs 2,68,705 Crore

Investments by banks in government and other approved securities have fallen. They stood at Rs 1,79,531 crore on August 16, 1996 down from Rs 1,79,161 crore on August 2, 1996. Investments in government securities was down to Rs 1,45,963 crore from Rs 1,46,330 crore and in other approved securities, it fell to Rs 33,198 crore from Rs 33,201 crore.

Bank credit dwindled to Rs 2,68,705 crore on August 16, 1996 from Rs 2,69,659 crore on August 2, 1996. Both food credit and loans, cash credit and overdrafts have fallen. Food credit was down to Rs 11,247 crore from Rs 11,862 crore. Loans, cash credit and investment have fallen to Rs 2,42,101 crore from Rs 2,43,010 crore.

Aggregate deposits, on the other hand, have risen to Rs 4,69,870 crore on August 16, 1996 from Rs 4,68,010 crore on August 2, 1996. Demand deposits rose to Rs 83,262 crore from Rs 80,164 crore but time deposits fell to Rs 3,86,609 crore down from Rs 3,87,846 crore during the same period.

On the assets side, cash-in-hand and balances with the Reserve bank have gone up to Rs 61,651 crore from Rs 56,439 crore. The former went up to Rs 3,244 from Rs 3,185 crore and balances with the Reserve Bank jumped to Rs 58,406 crore from Rs 53,254 crore.

This has resulted in the cash-deposit ratio shooting up to 13.12 on August 16, 1996, from 12.06 on August 2, 1996. The credit-deposit ratio continues to decrease as the demand for credit for the banking system as a whole is down. The credit- deposit ratio on August 16, 1996 was 57.19, down from 57.62 in the previous week. The investment-deposit ratio is also down to 38.13 from 38.36.

The incremental ad hocs stand at Rs 12,830 crore as of August 9, 1996, which is still above the Rs 9000-crore limit. The total outstanding ad hocs is Rs 42,275 crore.

The on-tap bills held by banks amounted to Rs 900 crore. The holdings of 91-day treasury bills by state governments are Rs 6,456 crore, a decline of Rs 852 crore over the March 31, 1996 figure.

The foreign currency assets has risen marginally by $10 million for the week ended August 23 to touch $17.98 billion. Gold stayed put at $4.41 billion and SDRs were at $19 million, down from $61 million. The total reserves stood at $22.41 billion on August 23, up from $22.35 billion on August 16. Reserve money has risen by Rs 2,546 crore for the week ended August 9, to touch Rs 1,87,908 crore. Currency in circulation has risen by Rs 1,740 crore in the same period to touch Rs 1,28,204 crore. The net RBI credit to the government has risen by Rs 2,871 crore to touch Rs 1,33,961 crore on August 9, out of which a major increase of Rs 2,475 crore was in the credit to the central government. The outstandings to the centre on August 9 was Rs 1,33,535 crore.