Led by private banks, bank credit grows 9.2% in March quarter

Credit growth of scheduled commercial banks was at 9.2 per cent in the quarter ended March 2016, led by good performance by private sector lenders, says a RBI report.
"Bank credit registered a growth of 9.2 per cent in March 2016 (y-o-y) spearheaded by higher credit growth in private sector banks," the report, which was released today, said.
The data covers 1,08,934 offices of the scheduled commercial banks (SCBs), excluding regional rural banks (RRBs).
With the inclusion of IDFC Bank in the quarter, the total number of SCBs (excluding RRBs) reporting data has increased to 91.
The central bank said that when compared to urban and metropolitan areas, the credit growth was higher in rural and semi-urban regions.

In terms of total number of credit accounts, banking sector registered a y-o-y growth of 13.9 per cent in the reporting period.

The growth in number of accounts was higher for private sector banks, RBI said.
Credit to industrial sector grew (y-o-y) at a slow pace of 4.3 per cent in March 2016, indicating weak domestic demand and subdued corporate performance.
"As a result, its share in total credit declined to 40 per cent in March 2016 from 42.3 per cent in March 2015," RBI said.
The share of personal loans in total credit of SCBs increased from 16.7 per cent in March 2015 to 17.9 per cent in March 2016, mostly due to higher growth of housing loans.

The Weighted Average Lending Rate (WALR) reduced to 11.34 per cent in March 2016 as compared to 11.79 per cent in March 2015.
The WALR for housing loans declined to 9.82 per cent in March 2016 from 10.5 per cent in March 2015, the central bank said.