New Delhi, July 4 (KNN) The Economic Survey 2018-19, which was tabled by Union Minister for Finance and Corporate Affairs Nirmala Sitharaman in the Parliament today, states the monetary policy witnessed a flip over last year.

The reason for the flip over, the Survey said, was Non-Performing Asset (NPA) ratios declined and credit growth accelerated which has improved the banking performance. The currency in circulation increased by 22.6% in the last financial year.

Deposits with the banking system, both demand and time has recorded acceleration in their growth, leading to an increase in aggregate deposits by 9.6 percent in 2018-19, according to the Economic Survey.

The benchmark policy rate was first hiked by 50 basis points (bps) and later reduced by 75 bps due to weaker than anticipated inflation, growth slowdown, and softer international monetary conditions. Liquidity conditions have remained systematically tight since September 2018.

There were some key factors leading to liquidity tightening like, growth of bank credit has improved in the last two quarters of 2018-19. The growth in currency in circulation also accelerated. The Survey said the performance of the banking sector, Public Sector banks, in particular, improved in 2018-19.

While presenting the Economic Survey, the Minister said, “The Gross NPA ratio of Scheduled Commercial Banks decreased from 11.5 percent to10.1 percent between March 2018 and December 2018. Growth in Non-food Bank Credit (NFC), which remained sluggish in the last few years, showed improvement in 2018-19. Bank credit to large Industry and services segments were the main drivers of overall NFC growth in 2018-19”.

The cumulative net assets under management of all Mutual Funds increased by11.4 percent to Rs. 23,79,584 Crore. There was a net outflow of Rs. 5,499 Crore by Foreign Portfolio Investors in 2018-19. During fiscal 2017-18, the gross direct premium of General Insurers (within India) was Rs.1,50,660 Crores registering 17.6 percent annual growth.

Till March 31, 2019, the Corporate Insolvency Resolution Process yielded a resolution of 94 cases which has resulted in the settlement of claims of Rs. 1,73,359 crores. Moreover, as on 28 Feb 2019, 6079 cases involving a total amount of Rs 2.84 Lakh crores have been withdrawn before admission under provisions of IBC. Further, according to the RBI reports, Rs 50,000 crore has been received by banks from previously non-performing accounts.  RBI also reports that additional Rs 50,000 crore has been "upgraded" from non-standard to standard assets. (KNN/ VS)