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The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) in its latest data has said that banks' non-food credit growth accelerated to 9.3 percent in December 2021 from 6.6 per cent in the same period of the last year. Credit to agriculture and allied activities continued to perform well, registering a robust growth of 14.5 percent in December 2021 as compared to 7.7 percent in December 2020. Growth in loans to industry improved noticeably to 7.6 percent in December 2021 from 0.4 percent.

It stated size-wise, credit to medium industries registered high double-digit growth of 86.5 per cent in December 2021 as compared with 17.1 per cent last year. Growth in credit to micro and small industries accelerated to 20.5 per cent in December 2021 from 1.3 per cent a year ago. Credit to large industries recorded a growth of 1.3 per cent in December 2021 against a contraction of 0.5 per cent a year ago.

It mentioned within the industry, growth in credit to all engineering, beverage & tobacco, chemicals & chemical products, infrastructure, leather & leather products, mining & quarrying, petroleum, coal product & nuclear fuels, rubber plastic & their products, textiles and wood & wood products accelerated in December 2021 as compared to the corresponding month of the previous year. However, it stated credit growth to basic metal & metal products, cement & cement products, construction, food processing, gems & jewellery, glass & glassware, paper & paper products and vehicles, vehicles parts & transport equipment decelerated in the reporting month.

Besides, it stated the growth in loans to the services sector accelerated to 10.8 per cent in December 2021 from eight per cent a year ago, mainly due to a significant improvement in credit growth to non-banking financial companies (NBFCs). Credit to the personal loans segment continued to expand at a robust rate and grew 14.3 per cent in December 2021 as against 8.8 per cent a year ago. Housing remained the prime driver of overall growth in the segment.