According to RBI data released on Monday, industries have seen an increase of 13.5 percent in bank loans in the fortnight ending February 28. Whereas in the same period last year it was 7.5 percent. The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) said this strong growth is mainly due to higher growth in sectors like ‘Infrastructure’, ‘All Engineering’, ‘Chemicals and Chemical Products’, ‘Petroleum, Coal Products and Nuclear Fuels’ and ‘Textiles’.
RBI has released data on regional distribution of bank loans for February 2026. This data has been collected from 41 selected scheduled commercial banks (SCBs), which account for about 95 percent of the total non-food loans given by all commercial banks.
Non Food Bank Loan
RBI said that on a year-on-year basis (yoy), non-food bank loans grew by 14.3 per cent in the fortnight ended February 28, 2026, compared to 11.1 per cent in the same fortnight last year (March 7, 2025). RBI said that there was a growth of 13.5 percent on annual basis in loans given to industries, whereas it was 7.5 percent in the same fortnight of last year. With regard to industries, the RBI said loans to ‘micro and small’ and ‘medium’ industries continued to grow in double digits, while loans to large industries also recorded high growth.
Gold and housing loan situation
According to the data, loans given to the service sector recorded a growth rate of 16.3 percent on an annual basis (it was 11.7 percent in the same fortnight last year). This growth was driven by high growth in loans given by banks to sectors like ‘Non-Banking Financial Companies’ (NBFCs) and ‘Commercial Real Estate’. RBI said that the personal loans sector recorded a growth of 15.2 percent on an annual basis, whereas a year ago it was 11.7 percent.
RBI further said that housing loans continued to see steady growth, while sectors like ‘vehicle loans’ and ‘gold loans’ continued to expand rapidly. RBI also said that there was an increase of 12.3 percent in loans given for agriculture and related activities. In the same fortnight last year this increase was 11.4 percent.