Non-food bank credit growth decelerated to 6% in August, shows RBI data

Non-food bank credit growth decelerated to 6 per cent in August as against 9.8 per cent in the same month last year, RBI data showed on Wednesday.

Non-food credit stood at Rs 90.46 lakh crore as on August 28, according to the data on sectoral deployment of bank credit released by the Reserve Bank.

"Credit to agriculture and allied activities increased by 4.9 per cent in August 2020 as compared with a growth of 6.8 per cent in August 2019," it said.

Growth of credit to industry decelerated to 0.5 per cent from 3.9 per cent in August 2019.

Within industry, credit to 'food processing', 'petroleum, coal products and nuclear fuels', 'leather and leather products', 'wood and wood products' and 'paper and paper products' segments registered accelerated growth in August 2020 as compared to the growth in the corresponding month of the previous year.

However, credit growth to 'beverage and tobacco', 'construction', 'infrastructure', 'rubber plastic and their products', 'chemical and chemical product', 'glass and glassware' and 'all engineering' decelerated / contracted.

The RBI further said credit growth to the services sector decelerated to 8.6 per cent in August 2020 from 13.3 per cent in the same month last year.

"Within this (services) sector, credit to 'computer software', 'trade' and 'tourism, hotels and restaurants' registered accelerated growth in August 2020

vis-a-vis the growth in the corresponding month of the previous year," it said.

Personal loans continued to perform well, registering a growth of 10.6 per cent as compared to 15.6 per cent expansion in August 2019.

Within this sector, vehicle loans registered an accelerated growth in August 2020 as compared to the same month of the previous year.