Feeding on the festive season and economic turnaround, the pace of credit to retail, farming and industry increased further in September 2021.

       The Reserve Bank of India said in a statement that the retail category covering housing, vehicle, credit cards etc grew at a faster clip of 12.1 per cent in September 2021 as compared to 8.4 per cent in September 2020. The faster credit growth in housing, vehicle loans, and loans against gold jewellery pushed the activity.

       Credit to agriculture and allied activities registered a higher growth of 9.9 per cent in September 2021 as compared to 6.2 per cent in September 2020.

       Ahead of the busy season in the second half starting October, the credit to industry picked up clocking 2.5 per cent growth in September 2021 from 0.4 per cent in September 2020. The medium industries registered a robust growth of 49 per cent in September 2021, up from 17.5 per cent a year ago. Credit to micro and small industries got traction with growth accelerating to 9.7 per cent in September 2021 from a contraction of 0.1 per cent a year ago. Credit to large industries continued to contract at 1.0 per cent in September 2021 as compared to a contraction of 0.2 per cent a year ago. The tepid demand and deleveraging of balance weighed on lending to large size firms, bankers said.

       Credit growth to the services sector decelerated to 0.8 per cent in September 2021 from 9.2 per cent in September 2020, mainly due to contraction/deceleration in credit growth to NBFCs, trade and commercial real estate, RBI added.