Credit offtake up 21.3% in last 12 mths

Indicating a sound industrial activity in the country, credit offtake from banks grew by 21.3 per cent during the one-year period ended October 22, up from 9.3 per cent from the year-ago period.

As of October 22, credit offtake from banks stood at Rs 35.81 lakh crore. As of October 23, 2009, bank credit for the 12 month period was Rs 29.51 lakh crore, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) said today.

During the September 2009-10 period, the Indian economy had embarked on the recovery path from the global financial meltdown that began in September, 2008.

Meanwhile, in its annual monetary policy the RBI has estimated that credit would grow by 20 per cent this fiscal.

"The growth in non-food credit of banks is placed at 20 per cent. As always, these numbers are provided as indicative projections and not as targets," the RBI had said.

During the past few months, the rate of growth in credit offtake has hovered just below 20 per cent.

But credit growth during the one-year period ended August 13 had jumped by to 20.2 per cent to Rs 34.64 lakh crore. After a gap of a month, the growth has once more surpassed the 20 per cent mark.

Credit growth has been higher so far this fiscal on account of large borrowings by telecom firms for the 3G spectrum (radio waves).

The government realised over Rs 1 lakh crore from sale of spectrum for high speed mobile and broadband wireless services, far higher than the estimated revenue of Rs 35,000 crore in the Budget.

According to analysts, the demand for credit is good and the country can expect robust growth in the current fiscal.

Ratings agencies like Crisil had earlier said that the country is likely to see credit growth of around 20-22 per cent this fiscal.