Services outpace industry in bank loans in FY14

Total gross non-food credit of scheduled commercial banks went up 14.3 per cent during the fiscal, speeding from 13.5 per cent in fiscal 2013, according to data compiled by RBI from select 47 scheduled commercial banks, which account for about 95 per cent of the total non-food credit deployed by all scheduled commercial banks.

Intra-years, there were interesting differences in growth pattern. The Q3 saw not only the lowest increase in bank credit during FY14, the increment was also only half of that a year ago. Additional bank credit in H1 was three times that in the corresponding period of FY13. The fourth quarter witnessed nearly 1.5 times more lending relative to Q3, though the growth rate over the quarter worked out to a moderate 4 per cent on y-o-y basis.

During 2013-14, direction of growth in bank credit shifted from industry to agriculture, services and personal loans. Bank credit to micro, small, medium and large industries not only slowed from 15.1 per cent to 13.1 per cent; the pace was also lower compared to 13.5 per cent in agriculture, 16.1 per cent in services and 15.5 per cent in personal loans. In personal loans, borrowing for vehicle purchase slowed from 24.7 per cent to 17.4 per cent, but lending for housing was marked by a step-up in the rate from 15 per cent to 18.4 per cent.

In services, bank credit to wholesale, retail trade increased 17 per cent slowing from 23 per cent in FY13, whereas lending to commercial real estate doubled the pace to 22 per cent, Loans to infrastructures which accounted for around a third of bank lending to industry slowed from 15.8 per cent to 15.1 per cent. The growth rate in loans to power companies retarded from 25.7 per cent to 17.4 per cent; but the same to road sector escalated from 18 per cent to 20 per cent. Bank lending to telecom companies went up 3 per cent (7 per cent decline in FY13).

In other industries, bank loans to food processing went up 26 per cent, cement and cement products, gems and jewellery, and construction 18 per cent each, basic metals 15 per cent and engineering 13 per cent. Bank credit to chemicals and chemical products grew 5 per cent, a fifth of the rate in fiscal 2013.