Mumbai: India's current account deficit narrowed sharply to USD 1.4 billion or 0.2 per cent of GDP in the December quarter, the Reserve Bank said on Thursday.
The deficit was at 2.7 per cent of the GDP in the year-ago period and 0.9 per cent in the preceding quarter.
The sharp contraction was primarily due to a lower trade deficit at USD 34.6 billion, and a rise in net services receipts, the central bank said.
The CAD is a critical indicator of the macroeconomic health and represents the gap between the overall foreign exchange expended and received in the economy.
Read more: Retail inflation eases to 6.58% in February
The data also comes on a day when the rupee depreciated to a 17-month low of 74.24 against the US dollar.
For the first nine months of the fiscal year, the CAD has narrowed to 1 per cent of the GDP.
Banks credit grows at 6.13%, deposits by 9% in 2nd half of February
Banks credit grew at 6.13 per cent to Rs 101.04 lakh crore while deposits expanded by 9 per cent to Rs 133.31 lakh crore in the fortnight to February 28, according to the latest Reserve Bank data.
In the year-ago fortnight ended March 1, 2019, banks advances were at Rs 95.20 lakh crore while deposits stood at Rs 122.30 lakh crore.
In the previous fortnight which ended on February 14, 2020, bank credit had grown by 6.36 per cent to Rs 100.41 lakh crore, while deposits rose by 9.2 per cent to Rs 132.35 lakh crore.
In January 2020, bank credit growth declined to 8.5 per cent as against a growth of 13.5 per cent year-ago, led by a sharp slowdown in loans to the services sector.
Growth in advances to the services sector decelerated to 8.9 per cent from 23.9 per cent in January 2019.
(PTI Report)
