New Delhi: State Bank of India (SBI), the country's largest lender, on Thursday said it is witnessing a lack of demand for corporate loans, a category where growth is also "muted". Retail lending, however, is growing at a decent rate, the bank said.
"Corporate lending growth is at 2-3%. Clearly, there is a lack of demand for corporate loans.
"However, retail lending (home loans, personal loans) is seeing reasonable growth at 18%," SBI MD Arijit Basu told reporters on the sidelines of ABP Infocom here.
He said the SBI Purchasing Managers' Index (PMI) has crossed the 50% mark for the first time last month. "This shows sentiments are slightly improving now."
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Asked about the status of non-performing assets (NPA), Basu said that gross NPAs declined by 1.5% to 7.2% as on September 30. Net NPAs stood at 2.79%, he said, adding, the bank has increased the provision coverage ratio (PCR) to 82% from 60%.
"Our focus is to strengthen the balance sheet. New slippages will be contained within a certain range of 1.5% every quarter. Corporate slippages have also come down," he said.
