Outstanding credit extended by non-banking financial companies (NBFCs) against gold jewellery surged nearly 70% year-on-year in May, marking the fastest growth among all lending segments, according to data released by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on Tuesday.
Outstanding loans against gold jewellery stood at Rs 3.29 lakh crore at the end of May 2026, up 69.9% from Rs 1.94 lakh crore a year earlier.
Within the retail loan portfolio, housing loans, vehicle loans, and loans against gold jewellery registered robust growth during the month, with overall retail credit rising 19.5% year-on-year in May, compared with 14.9 per cent in the year-ago period.
Apart from gold loans, outstanding credit to the commercial sector by NBFCs recorded the second-highest growth, rising 40.2% year-on-year to Rs 1.19 lakh crore in May from Rs 85,317 crore a year ago.
Credit to agriculture and allied activities also remained strong, registering a 17.9% year-on-year growth in May 2026, sharply higher than the 5.0% growth recorded in the corresponding month last year.
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Loan growth to the industrial sector moderated to 7.3% in May from 10.0% a year ago, primarily due to slower growth in lending to infrastructure, the RBI data showed.
Similarly, credit growth to the services sector eased to 16.7% year-on-year from 23.9% in May 2025.
(This story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
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