Non-food credit growth slides to 7% in Dec 19 from 12.8% a year ago

Reserve Bank of India on Friday said that pace of non-food credit expansion, on year-on-year basis, moderated sharply to seven per cent in December 2019 from 12.8 per cent in December 2018.

All four categories – agriculture, industry, services and retail – segments showed deceleration in credit growth.

The Y-o-Y growth in credit to agriculture & allied was down to 5.3 per cent in December 2019 from 8.4 per cent in December 2018.

Credit growth to industry decelerated to 1.6 per cent in December 2019 from 4.4 per cent in December 2018. Within industry, credit growth to segments like cement & cement products and ‘construction’ accelerated. However, credit to engineering and infrastructure, food processing decelerated/contracted, RBI said in a statement.

Credit growth to the services sector decelerated sharply to 6.2 per cent in December 2019 from 23.2 per cent in December 2018.

Growth of personal loans decelerated marginally to 15.9 per cent in December 2019 from 17 per cent in December 2018.