New Delhi, Sep 1 (KNN) As the COVID-induced restrictions have eased across the country, the lending to Agriculture, Retail and Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) gathered pace and witnessed a sharp rise in July 2021 compared to the same month in 2020.

According to Reserve Bank of India's (RBI) data on sectoral deployment of bank credit, Credit to agriculture and allied activities continued to perform well, registering an accelerated growth of 12.4 per cent in July 2021 as compared to 5.4 per cent in July 2020.

Retail loans clocked a growth of 11.2 per cent in July 2021 as compared to 9.0 per cent a year ago, primarily due to higher activity in ‘loans against gold jewellery’ and ‘vehicle loans’.

But credit growth to industry remained subdued at 1.0 per cent in July 2021 vis-à-vis 0.9 per cent in July 2020. Size-wise, credit to medium industries registered a robust growth of 71.6 per cent in July 2021 as compared to a contraction of 1.8 per cent a year ago.

Credit to micro and small industries accelerated to 7.9 per cent in July 2021 as compared to a contraction of 1.8 per cent a year ago, while credit to large industries contracted by 2.9 per cent in July 2021 as compared to a growth of 1.4 per cent a year ago.

Credit growth to the services sector slowed to 2.7 per cent in July 2021 from 12.2 per cent in July 2020, mainly due to deceleration in credit growth to ‘NBFCs’, and ‘commercial real estate’.