Mumbai, June 7: Non-food credit offtake, which has been on an upswing since the beginning of the current fiscal, seems to have turned sluggish. In the fortnight between May 9 and May 23, non-food credit of the banking industry dipped by Rs 828 crore.

The fall is especially significant as it rose by Rs 1,331 crore in the first three fortnights of the year. Based on the pick-up in the beginning of the year (compared with a negative growth in the previous years), Reserve Bank governor C Rangarajan had asserted that there has been a turnaround in the economy. The fall has been partially countered by a rise in food credit from Rs 7,947 crore on May 9 to Rs 9,453 crore on May 23. But aggregate bank credit fell by Rs 653 crore to Rs 2,77,556 crore during the fortnight.

Non-food credit, which had stood at Rs 2,70,264 crore on May 9, has dropped to Rs 2,68,105 crore. The credit-deposit ratio of the banking industry has fallen from 54.33 crore to 54.03 during the fortnight. Aggregate deposits, however, rose by Rs 1,609 crore to Rs 5,13,675 crore.

The investment of the banking sector in government securities and other approved securities has shot up to Rs 2,01,561 crore during the fortnight from Rs 1,99,646 crore, while the investment-deposit ratio has gone up to 39.24 from 38.99. The country's foreign exchange reserves, including gold and SDRs, jumped to $28.13 billion on May 30 from $27.79 billion on May 23.Foreign currency assets during the week rose from $23.82 billion to $24.15 billion, while gold and SDRs remained unchanged.

Copyright © 1997 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.