Pandemic’s economic shock ‘weathered well’ by banking system: EcoSurvey

New Delhi, Jan 31 (SocialNews.XYZ) Economic shock of the pandemic has been "weathered well" by India's commercial banking system so far, said the Economic Survey 2021-22.

"... Even if some lagged impact is still in pipeline," the Survey, tabled in Parliament on Monday by Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, said.

According to it, reserve and broad money supply growth in 2021-22 so far was lower than in the previous year.

The Survey noted that reserve money growth did not fully translate into commensurate broad money supply growth due to the smaller (adjusted) money multiplier reflecting large deposits by banks with the RBI under reverse repo window.

"Bank credit growth accelerated gradually in 2021-22 up from 5.3 per cent in the beginning of April 2021. The very latest data shows that the bank credit growth stands at 9.2 per cent as on December 31, 2021.

"At the sectoral level, credit to the agriculture sector continued to register robust growth and showed signs of improvement in the industry sector. Services sector credit growth, however, is yet to recover."

The Gross Non-Performing advances ratio of Scheduled Commercial Banks (SCBs) continued to decline from 11.2 per cent at end of 2017-18 to 6.9 per cent at end-September 2021. Similarly, Net Non-Performing advances ratio declined from 6 per cent to 2.2 per cent during the same period.

"Capital to risk-weighted asset ratio of SCBs continued to increase from 13 per cent in 2013-14 to 16.54 per cent at end-September 2021.

"The Return on Assets and Return on Equity for Public Sector Banks became positive in June 2020 and continued to be positive for the period ending September 2021, after recording negative profitability ratios from March 2016 to March 2020."

Source: IANS