Slowdown blues: Bank credit growth may fall to 6.5-7% in FY20, says Icra

According to ICRA, even in a high-growth scenario, wherein the second half of FY20 sees the incremental bank credit rise to Rs 6.5-7 trillion, there will still be a 40-45% year-on-year (YoY) decline.

Market News : With the Indian economy caught in a slowdown, bank credit is expected to expand at a muted 6.5-7 per cent in 2019-20 (FY20) from 13.3 per cent in FY19, rating agency ICRA said in a report. This will be the lowest in 58 years, mainly on account of lower working capital requirements by companies and risk aversion among lenders.

According to ICRA, even in a high-growth scenario, wherein the second half of FY20 sees the incremental bank credit rise to Rs 6.5-7 trillion, there will still be a 40-45 per cent year-on-year (YoY) decline.

As of December 6, 2019, incremental bank credit increased by Rs 80,000 crore, whereas banks disbursed Rs 5.4 trillion during the same period in FY 19 and Rs 1.7 trillion in FY18 (till December 2017).

Bankers said that with private investment practically coming to a halt, there was little demand for corporate credit. While activity may show an uptick in the second half, it will hardly compensate for the extended slowdown seen since the beginning of the year. Companies are battling stress and are deleveraging wherever possible. The retail segment is showing steady growth, but it is not in a position to make up for the slump in the industry segment.

According to ICRA’s assessment of 37 scheduled commercial banks, the YoY credit growth was 7.9 per cent as of September 2019. While credit growth in public sector banks was merely 4.4 per cent, private banks registered 15 per cent growth in the same period.

Dinesh Khara, managing director, State Bank of India, said, “The private sector investment and consumption has been impacted in the context of slow economic growth. This led to deceleration in credit growth in the current financial year. However, things are expected to change for better in the second quarter (July-September 2020) of the next financial year (FY21).”