The industrial sector witnessed an expansion in credit growth for the first time in 14 months in November 2017 over the same period the previous year, according to the RBI data release.
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As per the data, gross bank credit expanded 8.3 per cent in November, and credit off-take by the industry by 1 per cent.
The contraction in credit growth to the industry since October 2016 had hit a low of (-)5.2 per cent in February 2017, while the gross bank credit growth stood at 3 per cent in the same month.
According to the data, credit growth to the industry was driven by expansion to sectors such as food processing (9.9%), textiles (4.6%), chemicals (3.2%), engineering (2.4%) and metals (1%). But the infrastructure sector, which accounts for nearly 34 per cent of the credit demand by industries, witnessed a contraction in credit by 2.3 per cent in November.
Data shows that while micro and small industries, and large industrial units, saw expansion in credit growth in November, the medium scale industries continued to see a contraction (-8.3% in November 2017).
The credit outstanding to the industry, which stood at Rs 27,30,300 crore in March 2016, had come down to Rs 25,99,100 crore in October 2017 as a result of decline in credit growth numbers and year-on-year contraction since October 2016.
In November, it expanded to Rs 26,04,000 crore for the first time since the government announced its demonetisation policy in November 2016.
Apart from the industries, the services sector too saw a sharp rise in credit growth in November 2017 at 14 per cent, which is the highest since September 2016, with the exception of a 19.5 per cent growth seen in March 2017.
According to the experts, the movement is positive and have also seen reassuring numbers for exports and PMI but it must be noted that the credit growth numbers for the industry come on the back of a weak base, and can’t say it is a full fledged recovery. And asked for to wait for data for few more months to reach any conclusion.
'Bank Credit and growth'
Bank credit is the aggregate amount of credit available to a person or business from a banking institution. It is the total amount of funds financial institutions provide to an individual or business. A business or individual's bank credit depends on the borrower's ability to repay and the total amount of credit available in the banking institution.
'Growth in credit' refers to the growth/increase in the amount of credit that banks lend to the companies, business man, individuals, institutions, etc. either in the form of retail loans or institutional loans or any other form of loan or credit.