Growth in personal loans slows down to 14.2% in January: RBI data

Personal loan growth slowed down to 14.2 per cent in the fortnight to January 24, 2025, mainly due to subdued credit offtake of vehicle loans and credit card outstanding, according to the Reserve Bank data.

The RBI on Friday released data on sectoral deployment of bank credit for January 2025 collected from 41 select commercial banks, accounting for about 95 per cent of the total non-food credit deployed.

On a year-on-year (y-o-y) basis, non-food bank credit as of the fortnight ended January 24, 2025, grew at 12.5 per cent (a three-month high) as compared to 16.2 per cent for the corresponding fortnight of the previous year (January 26, 2024), the RBI said.

"Credit to personal loans segment registered a growth of 14.2 per cent (y-o-y) as on the fortnight ended January 24, 2025, as compared with 18.2 per cent a year ago, largely due to decline in growth rate in ‘other personal loans', ‘vehicle loans' and ‘credit card outstanding' segments," it said.

It further said that loan to agriculture and allied activities registered a growth of 12.2 per cent (y-o-y) as on the fortnight ended January 24, 2025 (20.0 per cent for the corresponding fortnight of the previous year).

Bank advances to industry recorded a growth of 8.2 per cent (y-o-y) as on the fortnight ended January 24, 2025, compared with 7.5 per cent for the corresponding fortnight of the previous year.

Among major industries, outstanding credit to ‘petroleum, coal products and nuclear fuels', ‘basic metal and metal product', ‘chemicals and chemical products' and ‘all engineering' recorded an accelerated growth, RBI said.

The data also showed that credit to agriculture and allied activities registered a growth of 12.2 per cent (y-o-y) as on the fortnight ended January 24, 2025 compared to 20 per cent