Kolkata: Lending against gold jewellery or gold loans continued its surge even as growth in the personal loans category as a whole slowed down to 11.9% year-on-year towards the end of July as compared with 14% a year ago, largely due to moderation in growth of other personal loans, vehicle loans and credit card outstanding.

Gold loans outstanding grew 122% year-on-year to Rs 2.94 lakh crore as on July 25, according to latest data from Reserve Bank of India. The growth print for the financial year so far was at 40.9%, the highest rate seen among all categories, with banks trying to build a more secured asset-bank lending to boost asset quality. This is in sync with the stress seen in the unsecured loan business, especially in microfinance.

Growth in credit card outstanding, an unsecured line of business, slowed to 5.6% year-on-year to Rs 2.91 lakh crore against 22% growth seen at the same time last year.

Meanwhile, growth in housing loans also moderated 9.6% to Rs 30.81 lakh crore, against 12.8% at the same time last year. Vehicle loan growth slowed to 8.9% to Rs 6.44 lakh crore against 14.6% growth seen a year back. Other personal loans stood at 8.1% to Rs 15.36 lakh crore against 12.7% growth last year.

Credit to agriculture and allied activities registered a year-on-year growth of 7.3% against 18.1% at the same time last year. Credit to industry also moderated to 6% growth compared with 10.2% in the corresponding period last year. Among major industries, outstanding credit to all engineering, vehicles, vehicle parts and transport equipment, rubber, plastic and their products and gems and jewellery recorded healthy year-on-year expansion.

Credit to services sector slowed too to 10.6% against 14.5%, on account of deceleration in loans to non-banking financial companies. Growth in loans to NBFCs was seen at 2.6% at the end of the reporting period against 12.7% at the same time last year.