The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) in its latest report has said that outstanding credit extended by non-banking financial companies (NBFCs) against gold jewellery witnessed the fastest growth among all lending segments in May 2026, surging nearly 70 per cent year-on-year. Outstanding gold loans rose to Rs 3.29 lakh crore at the end of May 2026 from Rs 1.94 lakh crore a year earlier, reflecting a growth of 69.9 per cent.
Within the retail loan portfolio, housing loans, vehicle loans, and loans against gold jewellery recorded healthy growth, driving overall retail credit growth to 19.5 per cent year-on-year in May, compared with 14.9 per cent in the same month last year. Besides gold loans, outstanding credit extended by NBFCs to the commercial sector registered the second-highest growth, increasing 40.2 per cent year-on-year to Rs 1.19 lakh crore in May from Rs 85,317 crore in May 2025.
Credit to agriculture and allied activities also remained robust, rising 17.9 per cent year-on-year in May 2026, significantly higher than the 5.0 per cent growth recorded in the corresponding period last year. However, lending to the industrial sector slowed to 7.3 per cent in May from 10.0 per cent a year ago, mainly due to weaker growth in infrastructure financing. Similarly, credit growth to the services sector also moderated, easing to 16.7 per cent year-on-year in May from 23.9 per cent in the corresponding month of 2025.
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