TREMOR tracks the sectoral deployment of bank credit in India from the Reserve Bank of India's monthly "Sectoral Deployment of Bank Credit" release (the SIBC return). This page documents the data source, the sector hierarchy, how RBI groups categories, and the data notes. For the parent-child reconciliation checks, see the companion India credit data validation page.
Data source
The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) publishes monthly data on "Sectoral Deployment of Bank Credit" based on the SIBC (Sector-wise and Industry-wise Bank Credit) return, which covers select scheduled commercial banks accounting for about 95% of total non-food credit extended by all SCBs (the March 2026 release refers to 41 select banks). The data is published as an Excel file attached to a press release, typically four weeks after the reporting date (e.g. February 2026 data published 30 March 2026).
- RBI Data Releases - Sectoral Deployment of Bank Credit - lists all monthly releases
- Each release links to a press release page with the SIBC Excel download.
What the Excel file contains
Each monthly file has two sheets; we use Statement 1, "Deployment by Major Sectors": 5 date columns (the latest reporting date plus 4 reference dates), 44 sector rows in a hierarchy from total bank credit down to sub-sectors, with values in Rs. Crore as outstanding balances (stock, not flows).
Sector hierarchy
The 34 published sectors are organized in 4 levels:
- Level 0 - Totals: Bank Credit (I), Food Credit (II), Non-food Credit (III)
- Level 1 - Major sectors: Agriculture, Industry, Services, Personal Loans
- Level 2 - Sub-sectors: NBFCs, Housing, Credit Cards, Vehicle Loans, Trade, Commercial Real Estate, etc.
- Level 3 - Sub-sub-sectors: Wholesale/Retail Trade, Housing Finance Companies, Public Financial Institutions
Bank Credit = Food Credit + Non-food Credit. Food Credit is lending to government agencies for food procurement (typically under 1% of total). Non-food Credit = Agriculture + Industry + Services + Personal Loans.
Primary vs reference data
Each Excel file contains 5 date columns, but only 1 is "new" - the latest reporting date; the other 4 are repeated from earlier releases for comparison. A given date ends up printed in roughly 25 different files over the following two years (once as primary, then as a reference column in subsequent files). We use only primary rows for analysis, giving one clean value per sector per date.
Revisions: the same date can carry different numbers in different files
This is the single most important thing to understand about this dataset, so it is worth spelling out plainly.
RBI never edits or replaces a file it has already published. But because every monthly file also reprints several earlier dates for comparison, the same reporting date ends up printed in roughly 25 different files over the following two years, and those reprints do not always agree with the original. The number RBI printed for a given month when it first published it can differ from the number RBI prints for that same month a year later. The closest familiar parallel is India's GDP estimates: a first advance estimate, then a revised estimate, then a further revision, all for the same quarter, with the original release never withdrawn.
What we publish
We publish the value as first reported. When a date is later reprinted with a different number, we keep the original and do not overwrite it. So the series tells you what RBI actually said at the time, and a number you download today will not silently change next month. The trade-off is that where RBI later corrected a figure, we still show the original. We read the reprints, but only to cross-check our own parsing, not to overwrite what we publish.
How much does it actually move
Measured across every sector and date in this dataset. Of the roughly 2,950 sector-and-date combinations that RBI has reprinted at least once:
- About 38% were never changed at all - the reprint matched the original exactly.
- About 47% ended up more than 1% away from the first published figure.
- About 16% ended up more than 10% away.
- Where a value does change it usually changes once (median one change), not repeatedly.
How long does it keep moving
RBI reprints a given date for about two years; the longest reprint we observe is 24.4 months after the reporting date. After that the date stops appearing in new files. So a figure can be revised at any point within roughly two years of first publication, and after that it is effectively final as far as anyone outside RBI can tell. That is a limit of what is observable rather than proof of convergence: many values are still different at their last reprint, and we simply stop seeing them at that point.
Which sectors move most
The revisions are not spread evenly. The headline totals are very stable; the smaller sub-sectors move much more.
- Most stable: Bank Credit, Non-food Credit, Agriculture. Typical revision close to zero.
- Most revised: Consumer Durables by a wide margin (typical revision around 16%), then Other Services, Transport Operators, Loans against Gold Jewellery and Other Personal Loans at roughly 3% each.
- Food Credit is a special case: usually not revised at all, but occasionally revised enormously. It is a small, lumpy category made up of a handful of government procurement accounts, so a single late filing moves it dramatically in percentage terms.
A concrete recent example: Consumer Durables for January to April 2023 was first published at around Rs 37,000 crore and was later restated to around Rs 21,000 crore, a reduction of about 43%. Both figures are genuine RBI publications, in different files.
Revisions are not evenly spread over time either
The 2017 and 2018 reporting dates turned out to be remarkably stable, with a typical revision of zero and fewer than 8% of values moving by more than 1%. Revisions cluster heavily in the 2020 to 2023 period, where the typical revision runs around 3% to 7% and roughly 40% of values move by more than 10% in the worst years. Dates from 2024 onward look stable so far, but they have had less time to be reprinted, so that reading is incomplete rather than reassuring.
Why this happens
RBI does not publish a reason alongside each revision, so this is our reading of the pattern rather than a statement from RBI. Around 41 banks file the underlying SIBC return each month. RBI publishes with whatever has been received by the cut-off, and late or corrected filings arrive afterwards.
How RBI groups the categories
Banks report to RBI using the SIBC return form, which is more granular than the published press release; RBI clubs some categories when publishing. The key differences are in the Services sector.
NBFCs, HFCs, and PFIs
In the return form banks report three separate categories: NBFCs (other than PFIs) (includes MFIs, gold-loan NBFCs, other NBFCs), Housing Finance Companies (HFCs) (PNB Housing, LIC Housing, etc.), and Public Financial Institutions (PFIs) (NABARD, SIDBI, NHB, EXIM Bank, MUDRA). In the published release, RBI clubs all three under a single "Non-Banking Financial Companies (NBFCs)" line with HFCs and PFIs as sub-items - so the published "NBFCs" number is actually NBFCs + HFCs + PFIs combined.
Other Services
The published "Other Services" line includes Mutual Funds, Banking and Finance (other than NBFCs and MFs), and other services not classified elsewhere - reported as separate items in the return form.
Data notes
Gold jewellery reclassification (May 2024)
Per the RBI footnote: "Since May 2024, a bank has changed the classification of a category of agricultural loan into 'Loans against gold jewellery' under retail segment." Any year-on-year comparison of gold jewellery loans spanning the May 2024 boundary includes a classification effect from this single bank; comparisons within periods after May 2024 are apple-to-apple. RBI does not separately disclose the magnitude.
Reporting date change (December 2025)
With effect from 31 December 2025, the last reporting fortnight definition changed to the last day of the month (Banking Laws (Amendment) Act 2025). So YoY growth from December 2025 onward compares end-of-month data with the last reporting fortnight (old definition) of the prior year.
Non-food credit gap (~5%)
The sum of the four major sectors does not exactly equal Non-food Credit - a gap of ~5% representing residual categories RBI does not break out. Expected and consistent across periods. See the validation page.
Wholesale trade
Wholesale trade includes food procurement credit extended outside the food credit consortium - separate from Food Credit (II), which covers lending to government agencies for food buffer-stock operations.
Computed: Other NBFCs (MFIs, gold loan, others) - sector 3.9.3
The published "NBFCs" line (3.9) includes all bank lending to NBFCs, but RBI publishes only two sub-items: HFCs (3.9.1) and PFIs (3.9.2), together only ~35% of the total. To complete the picture we compute the balancing figure 3.9.3 = 3.9 minus 3.9.1 minus 3.9.2, representing lending to MFIs, gold-loan NBFCs, and all other NBFCs. It is prefixed "COMPUTED:" to distinguish it from published data; after adding it, NBFCs (3.9) = HFCs + PFIs + Other NBFCs with zero gap across all periods.
What is Food Credit?
Food Credit (II) is bank lending to the Food Corporation of India (FCI) and state agencies for procurement of foodgrains (wheat and rice) for the Public Distribution System and buffer stocks - effectively government-to-government lending, not loans to farmers or food companies. RBI constitutes a Food Credit Consortium (~52 banks) annually; FCI borrows via a Cash Credit Limit facility backed by a Government of India guarantee. It is typically only ~0.4% of total bank credit but highly volatile (YoY can swing from -20% to +100%) and seasonal (spikes during wheat procurement Apr-Jun and rice Oct-Jan). Food Credit is not lending to farmers - those loans sit under "Agriculture and Allied Activities" inside Non-food Credit.
Calculations & coverage
- YoY % - change vs the point closest to 12 months earlier (60-day window)
- MoM % - change vs the immediately preceding data point
- Share of Total Bank Credit - sector outstanding as a percentage of Bank Credit (I)
- Share of Delta - sector's absolute increase as a percentage of total bank credit increase
Coverage: 40 monthly primary reporting dates, December 2022 to March 2026; new data released monthly ~4 weeks after the reporting date.
- RBI Sectoral Deployment of Bank Credit - monthly press releases + Excel
- RBI Returns List - all statutory returns banks submit to RBI
See it live
This page is the static, readable companion to TREMOR's interactive India Bank Credit tool. Open the interactive tool on TREMOR, or read the India credit data validation page. TREMOR is part of tigzig.com - AI for analytics, databases and macro signals.