The Reserve Bank of India today released the February 2016 issue of its monthly Bulletin. The Bulletin includes the Sixth Bi-monthly Monetary Policy Statement, 2015-16; Speeches by the Top Management and Current Statistics. This issue also includes two articles: (1) Performance of Private Corporate Business Sector during First Half of 2015-16; and (2) Composition and Ownership Pattern of Deposits with Scheduled Commercial Banks: March 2015.

1. Performance of Private Corporate Business Sector during First Half of 2015-16

This article analyses the performance of the private (non-financial) corporate business sector during the first half (April-September) of 2015-16, based on earnings results of 2,846 listed companies. Other important financial statements have also been referred. The article provides a brief analysis by sectors and major industry groups. It also captures the trend in sales, expenditure and profit margins of the private corporate sector over a longer horizon.

Main Findings:

• Sales: Sales of 2,846 listed companies of the private corporate sector contracted during H1: 2015-16.

• Profits: EBITDA (Earnings before Interest, Tax, Depreciation and Ammortisation) or operating profits and EBIT (Earnings before Interest and Tax) showed substantial positive growth at the aggregate level from the levels recorded in H2:2014-15. Net profits showed minor contraction in the current half year at (-) 0.7 per cent (Y-o-Y) as against that of (-) 21.0 per cent observed in H2:2014-15.

• Profitability: EBITDA and Net Profit margins recorded improvement over the previous six half-year periods indicating a revival in profitability. Increase in EBITDA margin despite deceleration/contraction in sales was common in most major industry groups.

• Industry: The Iron & Steel and the Textile industries have recorded significant contraction in sales growth.

• Risk Profile: Half-yearly statement of asset and liabilities indicated a rise in tail risk in corporate leverage.

2. Composition and Ownership Pattern of Deposits with Scheduled Commercial Banks: March 2015

This article presents the changes in composition of deposits with Scheduled Commercial Banks (SCBs) according to institutional ownership (viz., households, government, non-financial private corporate, financial, and foreign sectors), type of deposits, population groups, bank groups and states/union territories (UTs) in March 2015.

Highlights:

• Growth in total deposits decelerated to 10.4 per cent in March 2015 from 13.8 per cent in the previous year with savings deposits recording merely 7.7 per cent growth.

• Non-financial private corporate sector recorded sizeable growth in bank deposits following two successive years of contraction. Nevertheless, the households sector’s share in total deposits maintained an upward trend.

• Composition of total deposits is gradually shifting more towards higher interest bearing term deposits, more so in the urban and metropolitan areas. Overall, term deposits constituted 65.1 per cent of total deposits, followed by savings deposits at 25.6 per cent.

• Share of metropolitan branches in total deposits has been declining since 2010, while those of rural, semi-urban, and urban branches have correspondingly risen.

• Public sector banks through their large branch network held the largest share (73.2 per cent) of the total deposits in March 2015, garnering around 90 per cent of government deposits and more than three-fourth of households’ deposits.

• Deposits mobilised by SCBs were highly concentrated with seven states/UTs comprising 66.2 per cent of total deposits.

Sangeeta Das
Director

Press Release : 2015-2016/1895