Credit to industry expanded by 7.3% in the fortnight ended on February 21, 2025, compared with 8.4% in the year-ago period, according to Reserve Bank data released on Thursday.

Among major industries, outstanding credit to ‘petroleum, coal products and nuclear fuels’, ‘all engineering’, ‘construction’, and ‘paper & paper products’ recorded an accelerated y-o-y growth, it said.

Credit to agriculture and allied activities registered a growth of 11.4% (y-o-y) as on the fortnight ended February 21, 2025 (20% for the corresponding fortnight of the previous year).

RBI released the data on sectoral deployment of bank credit for February 2025 collected from 41 select banks, accounting for about 95% of the total non-food credit deployed by all scheduled commercial banks.

On a year-on-year (y-o-y) basis, non-food bank credit as on the fortnight ended February 21, 2025, grew at 12% as compared to 16.6% for the corresponding fortnight of the previous year (February 23, 2024).

The data also showed that credit to services sector recorded a growth of 13% (y-o-y) as on the fortnight ended February 21, 2025 (21.4% for the corresponding fortnight of the previous year), with a decelerated growth in credit to ‘non-banking financial companies’ (NBFCs).

However, credit growth to ‘computer software’ accelerated and credit growth remained robust in ‘professional services’ and ‘trade’ segments.

Credit to personal loans segment registered a growth of 14% as compared with 18% a year ago, largely due to decline in growth rate in ‘other personal loans’, ‘credit card outstanding’ and ‘vehicle loans’ segments.