Credit growth moderates in personal loan segment in December: RBI data

Bank credit to personal loan segment moderated to 14.9 per cent year-on-year in December, largely due to decline in growth in 'other personal loans', 'vehicle loans' and 'credit card outstanding', according to Reserve Bank data released on Friday.

The RBI has released data on sectoral deployment of bank credit for December 2024 collected from 41 select commercial banks, accounting for about 95 per cent of the total non-food credit deployed by all commercial banks.

On a year-on-year (y-o-y) basis, growth in non-food bank credit as on the fortnight ended December 27, 2024 moderated to 12.4 per cent as compared to 15.8 per cent for the corresponding fortnight of the previous year.

According to the data, bank credit to agriculture and allied activities registered a growth of 12.5 per cent (y-o-y) as on the fortnight ended December 27, 2024 (19.4 per cent for the corresponding fortnight of the previous year).

Further, credit growth to industry remained almost flat at 7.4 per cent year-on-year.

Among major industries, outstanding credit to 'food processing', 'petroleum, coal products and nuclear fuels', and 'all engineering' recorded a higher growth. However, credit growth in the infrastructure segment decelerated.

"Credit to personal loans segment moderated to 14.9 per cent growth (y-o-y) as on the fortnight ended December 27, 2024 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'," the Reserve Bank said.

However, 'housing' – the largest constituent of this segment – recorded accelerated growth on y-o-y basis.

In services sector too, credit growth moderated to 13.0 per cent (y-o-y) as on the fortnight ended December 27, 2024. The growth was 20 per cent for the corresponding fortnight of the previous year.

The moderation was primarily due to decelerated growth in credit to 'non-banking financial companies' (NBFCs) and trade segments. However, credit growth (y-o-y) to 'computer software' and 'professional services' accelerated.