Data on sectoral deployment of bank credit collected from select 41 scheduled commercial banks, accounting for about 90 per cent of the total non-food credit deployed by all scheduled commercial banks, for the month of August 2018 are set out in Statements I and II.

Highlights of the sectoral deployment of bank credit are given below:

• On a year-on-year (y-o-y) basis, non-food bank credit increased by 12.4 per cent in August 2018 as compared with an increase of 5.5 per cent in August 2017.

• Credit to agriculture and allied activities increased by 6.6 per cent in August 2018 in comparison with an increase of 6.5 per cent in August 2017.

• Credit to industry rose by 1.9 per cent in August 2018 as against contraction of 0.3 per cent in August 2017. Credit to major sub-sectors such as ‘infrastructure’, ‘textiles’, ‘chemical and chemical products’ and ‘all engineering’ accelerated. However, credit to ‘basic metal & metal product’, ‘cement & cement products’, ‘gems & jewellery’ and ‘paper & paper products’ contracted/declined.

• Credit to the services sector expanded by 26.7 per cent in August 2018 as compared with that of 5.0 per cent in August 2017.

• Personal loans increased by 18.2 per cent in August 2018, up from an increase of 15.7 per cent in August 2017.

Ajit Prasad
Assistant Adviser

Press Release : 2018-2019/736