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PDF - Bank Lending Survey for Q1:2025-26 ()
Date : Aug 06, 2025
Bank Lending Survey for Q1:2025-26

Today, the Reserve Bank released the results of 32nd round of its quarterly Bank Lending Survey (BLS)1, which captures qualitative assessment and expectations of major scheduled commercial banks on credit parameters (viz., loan demand as well as terms and conditions of loans) for major economic sectors2. The latest round of the survey, which was conducted during Q1:2025-26, collected senior loan officers’ assessment of credit parameters for Q1:2025-26 and their expectations for Q2, Q3 and Q4 of 2025-26.

Highlights:

A. Assessment for Q1:2025-26

  • Bankers’ assessment on loan demand recorded a seasonal moderation across major sectors during Q1:2025-26 (Chart 1 and Table 1).

  • Majority of the responding banks assessed continuation of easy terms and conditions for loans (Table 2).

B. Expectations for Q2:2025-26

  • Bankers’ outlook on loan demand improved for Q2:2025-26, they expect more loan demand particularly from agriculture, mining and quarrying, manufacturing, and retail/personal loan segments (Table 1).

  • Bankers expect some easing of loan terms and conditions, especially for the manufacturing and services sectors (Table 2).

C. Expectations for Q3:2025-26 and Q4:2025-26

  • Across major sectors, bankers’ sentiments on loan demand remained upbeat till Q4:2025-26 (Table 3).

  • The current easy loan terms and conditions are expected to continue in the second half of 2025-26.

Chart 1: Loan Demand -All Sectors

Table 1: Sector-wise Loan Demand - Net Response3
(per cent)
Sector Assessment Period Expectations Period
Q4:2024-25* Q1:2025-26 Q1:2025-26* Q2:2025-26
All Sectors 42.6 37.5 37.0 41.1
Agriculture 41.7 30.0 25.0 36.7
Mining and Quarrying 10.0 12.1 6.7 8.6
Manufacturing 42.9 36.2 41.1 43.1
Infrastructure 36.7 22.4 35.0 25.9
Services 41.1 33.9 41.1 33.9
Retail/Personal 52.0 27.8 38.0 42.6
* Based on the previous round’s response.

Table 2: Sector-wise Loan Terms and Conditions - Net Response
(per cent)
Sector Assessment Period Expectations Period
Q4:2024-25* Q1:2025-26 Q1:2025-26* Q2:2025-26
All Sectors 16.1 12.5 17.9 16.1
Agriculture 15.0 11.7 20.0 15.0
Mining and Quarrying -1.7 -1.7 -1.7 -1.7
Manufacturing 19.0 17.9 17.2 21.4
Infrastructure 10.0 10.0 13.3 13.3
Services 16.7 16.1 18.5 23.2
Retail/Personal 22.9 22.9 22.9 22.0
* Based on the previous round’s response.

Table 3: Sector-wise Expectations for Extended Period - Net Response
(per cent)
Sector Loan Demand Loan Terms and Conditions
Q3:2025-26 Q4:2025-26 Q3:2025-26 Q4:2025-26
All Sectors 41.1 48.1 19.6 23.2
Agriculture 43.3 45.0 16.7 20.0
Mining and Quarrying 15.5 15.5 3.4 3.4
Manufacturing 43.3 43.3 21.7 21.7
Infrastructure 31.7 38.3 16.7 15.0
Services 39.3 42.9 17.9 21.4
Retail/Personal 38.3 33.3 21.7 20.0

Note: Please see the attached excel file for detailed time series data.

1 The results of 31st round of the BLS with reference period as January-March 2025 were released on the RBI website on April 09, 2025. The survey results reflect the views of the respondents, which are not necessarily shared by the Reserve Bank.

2 The survey questionnaire is canvassed among major 30 SCBs, which together account for over 90 per cent of credit by SCBs in India.

3 Net Response (NR) is computed as the difference of percentage of banks reporting increase/optimism and those reporting decrease/pessimism in respective parameter. The weights of +1.0, 0.5, 0, -0.5 and -1.0 are assigned for computing NR from aggregate per cent responses on 5-point scale, i.e., substantial increase/ considerable easing, moderate increase/ somewhat easing, no change, moderate decrease/ somewhat tightening, substantial decrease/ considerable tightening for loan demand/loan terms and conditions parameters respectively. NR ranges between -100 to 100. Any value greater than zero indicates expansion/optimism and any value less than zero indicates contraction/pessimism. Increase in loan demand is considered optimism (Table 1), while for loan terms and conditions, a positive value of net response indicates easy terms and conditions (Table 2).