Non-Food Credit Vaults Rs 3,529 Crore

The banking industry saw a surge in the non-food credit during the fortnight ended September 21 by Rs 3,529 crore. This is the biggest increase in the non-food credit during the current fiscal. In the previous fortnight, it rose marginally by Rs 385 crore.

With this, the total non-food credit from April 1 to September 21 has risen by a paltry Rs 9,651 crore compared with Rs 25,095 crore during the corresponding period of the previous fiscal.

Also, the year-on-year non-food credit has been lower at Rs 45,732 crore compared (Rs 75, 236 crore).

The year-on-year bank credit (including the food credit) is at Rs 61,904 crore compared with Rs 86,794 crore.

To make up the shortfall in credit offtake, banks are fattening their investment portfolio. During the fortnight ended September 7, banks' investments went up by Rs 6,212 crore.

From April 1 to September 7, the investments have sharply increased to Rs 45,419 crore compared with Rs 25,073 crore in the corresponding period last fiscal.

The year-on-year investments have risen to Rs 81,562 crore compared with Rs 43,984 crore in the previous fiscal.

The slide in the forex reserves seems to have been stemmed. The forex reserves rose marginally to $44.76 billion for the week ended September 28 from $44.70 billion the previous week. However, the increase in reserves was not on account of fresh dollar flow into the system.

According to Reserve bank of India, the rise is a fallout of the effect of appreciation / depreciation of non-US currencies such as euro, pound sterling and yen held in reserves. In the previous two weeks, the forex reserves had declined by $ 661 million.

The deposits for the fortnight have increased by Rs 3,341 crore to Rs 10,38,484 crore. The deposits from April 1 to September 21 have also shown a sharp increase to Rs 75,886 crore compared with Rs 62,597 crore in the previous fiscal.