Personal loans grow 13.5% in March 2021: RBI

• Follow

Mumbai: Personal loans continued to grow at a robust pace and recorded a 13.5% year-on-year rise in March 2021, while industrial loan growth remained negative during all quarters of the last fiscal, the Reserve Bank of India said on Tuesday.

As per the Quarterly Basic Statistical Returns (BSR)-1: Outstanding Credit of Scheduled Commercial Banks (SCBs), March 2021′ released by the RBI, private sector banks registered a higher loan growth compared to the other bank group. Their share in total credit increased to 36.5% in March 2021 from 35.4% a year ago and 24.8% five years ago, it said. Credit to the household sector rose by 10.9% (y-o-y) and its share in total credit increased to 52.6% in March 2021 from 49.8% the year-ago period.

Growth in credit to the private corporate sector, however, declined for the sixth successive quarter and its share in total credit stood at 28.3%.

Also, working capital loans in the form of cash credit, overdraft and demand loans, which accounted for a third of total credit, contracted during 2020-21.

The RBI said the weighted average lending rate (WALR) on outstanding credit has moderated by 91 basis points during 2020-21, including a decline of 21 basis points during Q4 2020-21.

The bank branches in urban, semi-urban and rural areas recorded double-digit credit growth (y-o-y) in March 2021, whereas metropolitan branches, which accounted for 63% of bank credit, registered 1.4% growth.