Data on sectoral deployment of bank credit for the month of February 2024¹ collected from 41 select scheduled commercial banks, accounting for about 95 per cent of the total non-food credit deployed by all scheduled commercial banks, are set out in Statements I and II.

On a year-on-year (y-o-y) basis, non-food bank credit² registered a growth of 16.5 per cent in February 2024³ as compared with 15.9 per cent a year ago.

Highlights of the sectoral deployment of bank credit³ are given below:

• Credit growth to agriculture and allied activities remained robust at 20.1 per cent (y-o-y) in February 2024 (15.0 per cent a year ago).

• Credit to industry grew by 8.6 per cent (y-o-y) in February 2024 as compared with 6.8 per cent in February 2023. Among major industries, growth in credit (y-o-y) to ‘food processing’, ‘infrastructure’ and ‘textiles’ accelerated in February 2024 as compared with the corresponding month of the previous year, while that to ‘basic metal & metal products’ and ‘chemicals & chemical products’ decelerated.

• Credit to services sector grew by 21.2 per cent (y-o-y) in February 2024 (20.5 per cent a year ago). Among major contributors, growth in credit (y-o-y) to ‘trade’ and ‘commercial real estate’ improved while that to ‘non-banking financial companies (NBFCs)’ decelerated in February 2024 compared to February 2023.

• Personal loans growth moderated to 18.1 per cent (y-o-y) in February 2024 (20.6 per cent a year ago) due to decelerated growth in vehicle loans and other personal loans.

Ajit Prasad           
Director (Communications)

Press Release: 2023-2024/2139

¹ Data pertain to the last reporting Friday of the month.

² Non-food credit data are based on Section-42 return for the last reporting Friday of the month, which covers all scheduled commercial banks (SCBs).

³ Excluding the impact of the merger of a non-bank with a bank.