Scheduled commercial banks (SCBs) non-food credit growth moderated to 12.4 per cent in December 2024, against 15.8 per cent in December 2023 due to deceleration in credit growth in all four sectors: agriculture and allied activities, services, personal loans and industry.
Credit to agriculture and allied activities registered a growth of 12.5 per cent year-on-year (y-o-y) in the reporting month (19.4 per cent in the year ago period), per RBI data on “Sectoral Deployment of Bank Credit – December 2024 “
Credit growth in the services sector moderated to 13.0 per cent y-o-y (20.0 per cent), primarily due to decelerated growth in credit to ‘non-banking financial companies’ (NBFCs) and trade segments, RBI said. However, credit growth to ‘computer software’ and ‘professional services’ accelerated.
Personal loans
Credit growth in the personal loans segment moderated to 14.9 per cent y-o-y as compared with 17.6 per cent a year ago, largely due to decline in growth in ‘other personal loans’, ‘vehicle loans’ and ‘credit card outstanding’. However, ‘housing’ – the largest constituent of this segment – recorded accelerated growth on a y-o-y basis.
Credit to industry recorded a marginal decline in growth to 7.4 per cent, compared with 7.5 per cent for the corresponding fortnight of the previous year.
Among major industries, outstanding credit to ‘food processing’, ‘petroleum, coal products and nuclear fuels’, and ‘all engineering’ recorded a higher growth, RBI said. However, credit growth in the infrastructure segment decelerated.
