Bank credit grows 14.5%, deposits up 9.63%

Both bank credit as well as deposits growth marginally declined on a fortnightly basis, clipping at 14.5 percent at Rs 94.29 lakh crore deposits grew at a tepid 9.63 percent to Rs 121.22 lakh crore for the fortnight ending February 1, according to the latest RBI data.

In the previous fortnight ended January 18, deposits had increased by 9.69 percent to Rs 119.86 lakh crore and credit grew by 14.61 percent to Rs 93.32 lakh crore.

The decline was mainly driven by the poor show by agriculture and allied activities and the personal loans during the week.

While credit demand from agriculture and allied activities grew by 8.4 percent in December 2018, compared to an increase of 9.5 percent in December 2017, industrial credit rose by 4.4 percent in December 2018 over 2.1 percent in the year-ago month.

Similarly non-food credit also increased faster at 12.8 percent year-on-year basis in December 2018 compared to a 10 percent growth in the same month last year.

In the reporting month, credit to the services sector almost doubled to 23.2 percent as against 14.7 percent year- ago period but personal loans growth decelerated to 17 percent from 18.9 percent.