Scheduled commercial banks’ non-food credit grew 16.1% year-on-year (YoY) to Rs 138.36 trillion in April, sectoral credit data released by the Reserve Bank of India showed Wednesday.
It is higher than 15.4% on-year growth registered in March.
Credit to agriculture and allied activities rose 16.7% YoY to Rs 17.25 trillion while credit to industry segment rose 7% YoY to Rs 33.69 trillion.
Banks’ credit to services sector grew at the fastest pace, at 21.6% YoY to Rs 36.64 trillion. Among the services sector, credit to non-banking finance companies grew sharply, at 29.2% YoY to Rs 13.45 trillion.
The overall non-food credit growth is higher than analyst estimates. According to a recent SBI Research report, banks are likely to witness a 12%-13% YoY growth in their overall advances in FY24, compared with 15%-16% credit growth in FY23.
While credit off-take was robust in April, the weighted average lending rate (WALR) on fresh rupee loans of banks decreased by 23 basis points (bps) from 9.32% in March to 9.09% in April.
Further, the WALR on outstanding rupee loans of banks increased by 4 bps from 9.72% in March to 9.76% in April, while one-year median marginal cost of fund-based lending rate (MCLR) remained unchanged at 8.60%, the RBI data showed.
On liabilities side, the weighted average domestic term deposit rate (WADTDR) on fresh rupee term deposits of banks decreased by 12 bps from 6.48% in March to 6.36% in April. The WADTDR on outstanding rupee term deposits of banks increased by 12 bps from 6.16% in March to 6.28% in April, the data showed.