India’s bank credit is growing at close to twice last year’s pace while the price of new loans edges down. Non-food credit rose 19.1 percent year on year as of the fortnight ended September 30, 2026, against 11.2 percent in the corresponding fortnight a year earlier, the Reserve Bank of India said in its sectoral deployment release, based on 41 scheduled commercial banks covering about 95 percent of non-food credit.
The acceleration is broad. Credit to services grew 28.3 percent year on year, up from 9.9 percent, led by lending to non-banking financial companies, trade, commercial real estate, transport operators and professional services. Credit to industry and to agriculture each grew 19.5 percent, against 7.7 percent and 8.9 percent a year earlier, with infrastructure, metals, engineering, chemicals, food processing and textiles all described as buoyant. Personal loans grew 17.3 percent, against 11.5 percent, with housing and vehicle loans resilient and advances against fixed deposits accelerating, while growth in loans against gold jewellery and education loans slowed but stayed strong.
At the same time, transmission is still moving rates down. The weighted average lending rate on fresh rupee loans fell to 8.51 percent in September from 8.61 percent in August, while the rate on outstanding loans was unchanged at 8.96 percent. The one year median marginal cost of funds based lending rate fell to 8.55 percent in October from 8.61 percent in September. Deposit pricing eased in parallel: the weighted average rate on fresh term deposits fell to 5.61 percent in September from 5.67 percent, and the outstanding term deposit rate edged down to 6.55 percent from 6.56 percent.
The pairing matters for the policy debate. A central bank watching credit grow at 19 percent with services lending near 30 percent has less reason to hurry further easing than one watching rates alone, because the stimulus already delivered is plainly reaching borrowers. The figures are the RBI’s own published data and are the latest vintage available this morning.