Bank Credit Grew Only 11.1% In March '25

The deceleration in credit growth (y-o-y) was observed across all bank groups

FinTech BizNews Service

Mumbai, May 30, 2025: Today, the Reserve Bank released the web publication ‘Basic Statistical Return on Credit by Scheduled Commercial Banks (SCBs) in India – March 2025’1 on its ‘Database on Indian Economy’ (DBIE) portal2 (https://data.rbi.org.in Homepage > Publications). The publication provides information on various characteristics of bank credit in India, based on data submitted by SCBs {including Regional Rural Banks (RRBs)} under the annual ‘Basic Statistical Return (BSR) – 1’ system, which collects information on type of account, organization, occupation/activity and category of the borrower, district and population3 group of the place of utilization of credit, rate of interest, credit limit and amount outstanding.

Highlights:

• Bank credit growth (y-o-y) decelerated to 11.1 per cent in March 2025 from 15.3 (net of merger4) per cent in the previous financial year.

• The deceleration in credit growth (y-o-y) was observed across all bank groups during FY 2024-25. Private sector banks witnessed the steepest decline to 9.5 per cent in March 2025 after a sustained credit growth above 15 per cent for the preceding three years.

• With higher credit growth in rural, semi-urban and urban areas compared to metropolitan area, the share of metropolitan branches in total credit declined to 58.7 per cent in March 2025 from 63.5 per cent five years ago.

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  • The growth in personal loans,5 though moderated sharply to 13.2 per cent, continued to outpace headline credit growth, which has led to an increase in their share to 31.0 per cent (24.1 per cent five years ago).
  • Share of housing loans bearing interest rate 9 per cent and above came down to 36.8 per cent in March 2025 from 54.5 per cent a year ago which signifies decline in cost of housing loans.
  • Consumer durables and other personal loans accounted for nearly one third of total personal loans; the share of these loans bearing interest rate 11 per cent and above has declined to 47.4 per cent in March 2025 from 50.3 per cent in the previous year. 
  • Loans to industry accounted for nearly one fourth of total bank credit and increased at a (y-o-y) rate of 9.4 per cent in March 2025, down from 10.4 per cent a year earlier.
  • The share of Individuals in total credit maintained its increasing momentum and stood at 47.8 per cent in March 2025 as compared to 41.5 per cent in March 2020. Within individuals, the share of female borrowers also gradually rose to 23.8 per cent from 22.0 per cent in the said period.