Non-Food Credit Jumps In Sept

Non-food credit off-take of the banking sector showed a sharp turn in September indicating a possible industrial recovery.

Non-food credit advanced by scheduled commercial banks was at Rs 10,471 crore in September -- 59.79 per cent of the total non-food credit off-take in the first six months of the current fiscal.

The non-food credit off-take during the first six months of the current financial year was only Rs 17,583 crore compared with Rs 34,107 crore during the corresponding period of the last financial year.

Food-credit outstanding of scheduled commercial banks went up by Rs 2,414 crore. Food credit off-take during the first half of the financial year was Rs 7,933 crore against Rs 6,439 crore during the corresponding period of the last fiscal. Gross bank credit offtake during April-September was Rs 25,447 crore against Rs 40,546 crore in the first six months of 2000-01.

 

Investment portfolio of the banking industry swelled by Rs 3,907 crore (0.9 per cent) in September to Rs 4,13,988 crore. Banks' holding of government securities went up by Rs 4,334 crore, while the holding of other approved securities slipped by Rs 427 crore. Investments of scheduled commercial banks during the first half of 2001-02 rose by Rs 43,829 crore (11.8 per cent) -- higher than Rs 27,501 crore (8.9 per cent) during the corresponding period in 2000-01.

Aggregate deposits of banks increased by Rs 16,650 crore (1.6 per cent) during September to Rs 10,52,472 crore. The deposit growth during the first half of this financial year was Rs 89,854 crore against Rs 81,867 crore in the first six months of last fiscal.

Forex reserves of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) continued to increase for the second consecutive week. The forex reserve of the apex bank jumped by $210 million during the week ended on October 5 to $44.979 billion.

The accretion in forex reserves was on account of an increase in foreign currency assets by $102 million and gold reserves by $108 million during the week.

Forex reserves of the RBI rose by $2.698 billion since the beginning of the financial year. On a year-on-year basis, the reserves went up by $9.639 billion.

The ways and means advances increased by Rs 3,107 crore during the week ended on October 5 to Rs 7,250 crore. Loans and advances to the state governments, however, dipped by Rs 2,640 crore to Rs 6,544 crore.