Banks’ credit to industry grew by 8 per cent in October 2024 compared to 4.8 per cent in the year-ago period, according to the RBI data released on Friday.

The Reserve Bank data also showed that credit to agriculture and allied activities registered a growth of 15.5 per cent year-on-year (y-o-y) in October 2024, compared to 17.4 per cent seen in the same month of last year.

Among major industries, credit to ‘chemicals and chemical products’, ‘petroleum, coal products and nuclear fuels’, and ‘all engineering’ recorded a higher growth in October 2024 as compared to their respective growth rates a year ago.

Personal loans growth decelerated to 15.8 per cent (y-o-y) in October as compared to 18 per cent recorded a year ago, largely due to decline in growth in ‘other personal loans’, ‘vehicle loans’ and ‘credit card outstanding’.

However, ‘housing’ -- the largest constituent of personal loans segment -- recorded an accelerated growth on year.

RBI further said credit growth to services sector was at 14.1 per cent in October 2024 (20.4 per cent a year ago), primarily due to lower growth in credit to ‘non-banking financial companies’ (NBFCs) and trade segment. However, growth of credit to ‘commercial real estate’ accelerated in October 2024.

Non-food bank credit in October 2024 grew at 12.8 per cent, as compared to 15.5 per cent a year ago, RBI said.

Data on sectoral deployment of bank credit for October 2024 was collected from 41 select commercial banks, accounting for about 95 per cent of the total non-food credit deployed by all scheduled commercial banks.