New Delhi, May 5 (IANS) Reflecting strong economic activity and credit demand. scheduled commercial banks (SCBs) registered robust credit growth of 15.9 per cent in FY 2025-26, the government said on Tuesday.

FY26 ended with robust non-food credit growth of 15.9 per cent, marking a significant 497 basis points (bps) increase in growth from the corresponding period in FY25 (10.9 per cent).

The aggregate credit outstanding in March 2026 reached Rs 212.9 lakh crore, Rs 29.2 lakh crore higher than the previous year.

Credit growth in FY 2025-26 has been broad-based led by services sector, followed by personal loan segment, agriculture and allied activities, and industry, according to a Finance Ministry statement.

In the agriculture and allied activities, credit growth accelerated to 15.7 per cent, 528 bps higher than 10.4 per cent growth registered previous year, reflecting reinforced support for the farm sector.

Sustained rural demand and formalization of rural credit has been attributing to the positive momentum in primary sector credit offtake in FY2025-26.

Credit deployment to the industrial sector expanded at almost double rate to 15.0 per cent, compared to 8.2 per cent growth registered last year.

With a 33.1 per cent growth, micro and small industries registered a 3.7 times higher credit growth in FY2025-26.

Similar positive trends are witnessed for medium-scale industries where credit expanded by 21.7 per cent. Key drivers of industrial credit are infrastructure, basic metal and metal products, chemicals and chemical products, petroleum, coal products and nuclear fuels, etc.

Services sector credit, that contributes 28 per cent to the overall credit, recorded a robust expansion of 19.0 per cent YoY (compared to 12.0 per cent recorded during the same period last year).

The surge was primarily driven by high demand from segments like Non-Banking Financial Companies, trade, and commercial real estate.

Moreover, the personal loan segment with 33 per cent share in overall credit, expanded by 16.2 per cent in FY26, 455 bps higher than credit growth (11.7 per cent) registered a year ago.

Growth remained steady in the housing segment, while vehicle loans and loans against gold jewellery continued to show strong momentum.

–IANS

na/