Bank credit growth to fall 1% in FY21 due to Covid-19 pandemic: Crisil

09 Jun 2020 Evaluate

Domestic rating agency Crisil in its latest report has said that the Coronavirus disease (Covid-19) pandemic and the ensuing economic impact will lead bank credit growth to nosedive to only 1 percent in the current financial year (FY21) as compared to 6.14 percent achieved in the last financial year. It had earlier expected bank credit to grow 8-9 percent in FY21 before the Covid-19 crisis. It added that bank credit is an important factor illustrative of the general economic climate because it denotes aspects like the investments which are happening in a country or consumption of high-value items.

However, the rating agency rued that in the present, the uncertainty has made lenders risk-averse. It also said while the Reserve Bank of India has been reducing policy rates and the government has introduced measures to encourage lending, banks continue to be risk-averse, as reflected in higher surplus liquidity parked with the central bank and the high credit spreads for most borrowers.

According to the report, the corporate loan portfolio, which constitutes over half of the overall assets, will be the worst hit and is expected to de-grow during the fiscal because the lockdown has led to significant disruption in operations with limited capacity utilisation across sectors. It also said that job losses and salary cuts will reduce expenditure on discretionary items and result in a slide in retail loans, which account for about a fourth of bank credit.

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