Offtake in Metropolitan region lifts credit growth in H1FY22: RBI

YoY credit growth of the Metropolitan region, which accounts for over 60% of bank credit, rose from 1.7% this March to 4.6% in September

The rise in credit growth during the current financial year (FY22) has been led by a gradual revival in lending by banks in metropolitan centres, signalling a broad-based economic recovery, said the Reserve Bank of India on Friday.

The year-on-year (YoY) credit growth in the metropolitan region, which accounts for over 60 per cent of bank credit, increased from 1.7 per cent in FY21 (April 2020-March 2021) to 4.6 per cent in 12 months to September 2021. The growth rate was 3.6 per cent in 12 months to September 2020, according to the RBI data, while it was 2.7 per cent in 12 months ended June 2021.

Metropolitan centres are defined as those with a population of 1 million and above. The branches in urban, semi-urban and rural centres recorded double-digit growth.

The pace of bank credit gro­w­th increased to 7.0 per cent in 12 months to September, from 5.6 per cent in FY21 and 5.8 per cent a year ago.

The growth rate in aggregate deposits moderated marginally to 10.1 per cent in 12 months to September, from 11.0 per cent a year ago. The bank branches in metropolitan centres, which account for over half of the total deposits, led deposit mobilisation by banks.

Private sector banks recorded 10.9 per cent growth in credit and 16.0 per cent growth in deposits in the period on a YoY basis. Their public sector counterparts lagged with much lower growth rates — at 3.7 percent for credit and 7.4 per cent for deposits, respectively.

The share of current account and savings account deposits in total deposits has been gradually rising and was at 44.3 per cent at the end of September 2021.

As deposit mobilisation outpaced lending growth, the all-India credit-deposit (C-D) ratio declined to 70.0 per cent till September this year, from 72.0 per cent a year ago. The C-D ratio for metropolitan bran­ches, which have a dominant share in the banking business, was at 82.8 per cent in the period, from 88.4 per cent a year ago.