Base effect lifts credit growth to 10.65% in December

Credit growth after a long gap grew in double digits to 10.65 per cent at Rs 80,96,727 crore in the fortnight ended December 22, 2017, due to the base effect, according to the RBI data.

The advances had stood at Rs 73,17,391 crore in the fortnight ended December 23, 2016. "The credit growth is mainly because of the base effect. Due to the demonetisation last year, the base figures are getting revised and so that is where you are seeing the growth," State Bank of India's managing director (retail and digital banking) P K Gutpa said.

He said there is a revival in demand for retail credit but corporate credit continues to be muted.

"We are seeing revival of demand on the retail front. In December, we had record auto loans booked by us. Similarly, we saw a higher number of housing loans booked by us during the month," Gupta said.

The recently released Financial Stability Report showed that the credit growth of scheduled commercial banks, on a y-o-y basis, increased from 4.4 per cent to 6.2 per cent between March and September 2017.

The public sector banks' credit growth increased from 0.7 per cent to 2.2 per cent during the same period reversing the declining trend observed during the past two years.

The growth in credit in the reporting period was slightly higher than the previous fortnight ended December 8, 2017.

In the previous fortnight, the banks' advances had grown by 9.77 per cent to Rs 80,26,901 crore from Rs 73,12,107 crore in the year ago period.

In the reporting fortnight, banks' deposits had risen by 3.96 per cent to Rs 108,85,118 crore as against Rs 104,69,807 crore in the period ended December 23, 2016, the data showed.

Deposits in the previous fortnight ended December 8, 2017 had grown by 3.32 per cent to Rs 109,01,613 crore as against Rs 105,50,392 crore in the period ended December 9, 2016.

The FSR had said deposit growth of scheduled commercial banks, on a y-o-y basis, decelerated from 11.1 per cent to 7.8 per cent between March and September 2017.
The decline in deposit growth is observed across all bank groups, the report said.