Bankers were “highly optimistic” about credit demand across all the main sectors in the short term, an RBI survey of lenders said on Friday. 

After sagging for the last two years, the non-food credit growth has been hovering above 15 per cent in FY23. 

“We observe that bankers are highly optimistic of credit demand across all the main sectors in the coming quarters, viz, Q4:2022-23 to Q2:2023-24,” a paper based on the survey released in the February bulletin of the RBI said. 

The Bank Lending Survey provides sentiments of banks on loan demand, loan terms and their outlook in the near term across major sectors. It captures senior loan officers’ expectations on future credit demand, along with adjustments in its terms and conditions, and also seeks feedback on prevailing credit market conditions. 

The current survey covered a panel of top-30 scheduled commercial banks, which account for more than 90 per cent of the total outstanding, it said. 

The survey said that bankers’ sentiments on lending in terms of assessment of credit conditions quickly improved after the adverse reaction witnessed during April-June 2020 and April-June 2021 due to the first and the second waves of the COVID pandemic respectively.