Non-performing assets (NPAs) of the listed banks in India surged by 33.46% to Rs 1 lakh crore in the second quarter of current financial year, which reflects the impact of increasing interest rates and slowing economic growth. In June-September 2011, the gross NPAs of State Bank of India (SBI), India’s largest bank increased by 46% to Rs 33,946 crore. Along with SBI, Punjab National Bank (PNB) also saw increase in NPA by 29% to Rs 5,150 crore in June-September 2011.
However, ICICI bank registered modest increase of 0.39% to Rs 10,021 crore in gross NPAs. As per the analysis of 37 listed banks in India, the gross NPA have increased by Rs 1.06 lakh crore in the second quarter of 2011-12 from Rs 79,078 crore in the same period of last financial year. In the last 18 months, to control high inflation, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has increased its interest rates by 13 times or 375 basis points, as a result, banks passed these rate hikes to consumers, which led to sharp increase in bad loans.
The banks are also under pressure from loans outgoes to the sectors, which are facing delays in execution of projects because of the uncertainty on many regulatory issues, hence increasing concern over the companies’ ability to pay loan on time. The loan given to mining and power firms may become NPAs for banking sector because of the delay in the completion of projects on the back of regulatory issues, which is affecting the corporate profits. The increase in bad loans of banks has affected the investors’ sentiments also, as the share of SBI declined by 7% on the day of result. SBI’s NPA increased mainly from loans to export-oriented sector iron-steel, agro-based businesses and the government-sponsored schemes.
Earlier, the credit rating agency Moody’s downgraded its outlook for banking sector from stable to negative, and stated that slowing economic growth could increase bad loans and impact profitability of companies. However, other global credit rating agency Standard and Poor’s (S&P) has upgraded Indian banking sector by saying domestic regulations are in line with international standards.
The Reserve Bank also stated that the Indian banking sector is not facing any stress and there is no indication of a systemic threat. Non-stop hike in RBI’s key policy rates has increased the borrowing cost for corporate and slowed the project investments. The slowdown is reflected in the Index of Industrial Production (IIP) which declined to 5% in the first half of 2011-12 compared to 8.2% in the April-September 2010. The RBI has also estimated that Indian economy will grow by 7.6% in 2011-12 compared to 8.5% in the last financial year.
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