Hope Floats: Non-Food Credit Soars By Rs 3,952 Crore

In a sudden reversal of trend, non-food credit went up by Rs 3,952 crore during a single fortnight between June 29 and July 13, 2001.

The spectacular surge in non-food credit growth at one stroke has offset the first quarter (April-June) credit decline of Rs 3,126 crore and what more has made it a positive credit growth of Rs 826 crore in the new fiscal year so far.

However, the growth is still far behind the previous year's credit surge. During the corresponding period of the last fiscal, the growth was as high as Rs 13,054 crore.

Food credit increased by Rs 438 crore during the fortnight to Rs 50,738 crore. Aggregate credit outstanding of the banking sector increased by Rs 4,390 crore to Rs 5,23,047 crore.

 

Aggregated deposit of the commercial bank went up marginally by Rs 2,788 crore ( 0.3 per cent) during the fortnight to Rs 10,15,862 crore. Demand deposits declined by Rs 3,592 crore while the time deposit increased by Rs 6,380 crore.

Investment portfolio of the scheduled commercial banks increased by Rs 4,390 crore (2.2 per cent) to Rs 4,02,810 crore.

The growth would have been more but due to a fall in the other approved securities (except the government security) by Rs 30 crore to Rs 30,635 crore. Investment in the government security, however, grew by Rs 8,653 crore to Rs 3,72,175 crore.

Ways and means advances (WMA) went up by Rs 820 crore during the week ended on July 20 to Rs 11,289 crore. This is the seventh time in the current financial year, when the WMA figure crossed the upper limit of Rs 10,000 crore. Loans and advances to the state government however, fell by Rs 82 crore during the week to Rs 4,396 crore.

Foreign exchange reserves of the RBI increased by $45 million during the week to $43.604 billion.

The growth in forex reserves was fully on account of an increase of $37 million to the foreign currency assets to $40.802 billion. Gold reserves and special drawing rights remained unchanged at $ 2.798 billion and $ 4 million, respectively.