Personal Loans Recorded 13.5% YOY Growth In March 2021 Says RBI

Reserve Bank of India (RBI) released an update called as Quarterly Basic Statistical Returns (BSR)-1: Outstanding Credit of Scheduled Commercial Banks (SCBs), March 2021' today. It provided data covering 1,26,836 branches of 88 SCBs (excluding Regional Rural Banks). The RBI noted that bank branches in urban, semi-urban and rural areas recorded double-digit credit growth (Y-o-Y) in March 2021 whereas metropolitan branches, which accounted for 63% of bank credit, recorded 1.4% growth in credit.

Personal loans continued to grow at robust pace and recorded 13.5% growth (Y-o-Y) in March 2021; industrial loan growth, on the other hand, remained negative during all quarters of 2020-21. Credit to household sector rose by 10.9% (Y-o-Y) and its share in total credit increased to 52.6% in March 2021 from 49.8% a year ago; growth in credit to the private corporate sector, however, declined for the sixth successive quarter and its share in total credit stood at 28.3%.

Working capital loans in the form of cash credit, overdraft and demand loans, which accounted for a third of total credit, contracted during 2020-21. Private sector banks recorded higher loan growth when compared to other bank groups: their share in total credit increased to 36.5% in March 2021 from 35.4% a year ago and 24.8% five years ago. Weighted average lending rate (WALR) on outstanding credit has moderated by 91 basis points during 2020-21, including a decline of 21 basis points during Q4:2020-21.

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