Growth in bank loans to the farm sector declined significantly in the financial year 2017-18 while overall non-food credit growth remained unchanged, from the previous fiscal, latest data from the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) showed.
Credit to agriculture and allied activities rose 3.8% for the year ended March 2018 as compared with a 12.4% in the previous year. The farm sector is in distress in several parts of the country with many State governments announcing loan waivers to farmers in the last few years. Retail credit such as home and auto loans grew 17.8% for the year to March 2018 compared with a 16.4% rise. Overall non-food credit growth of commercial banks in 2017-18 remained at 8.4% as in the previous year.
Further, the data shows, credit to industry increased by 0.7% during the period as compared with a contraction of 1.9% in March 2017.
“Credit to major sub-sectors such as textiles, vehicles, vehicle parts and transport equipment, engineering, food processing, etc. accelerated. While loan to infrastructure, metal, cement etc. has declined.
Credit to the services sector increased by 13.8% in March 2018, as compared with an increase of 16.9% in March 2017.
