Business News

Kolkata: Banks' deposit mobilisation from the public increased 10.6% between November 2023 and November 2024, in tandem with credit growth, latest Reserve Bank of India (RBI) data showed. Term deposits and demand deposits also clocked double-digit growth in the same period.This is a result of banks' relentless effort to mobilise deposits and a fall in credit expansion, especially in the retail side, following the concerns raised by the regulator on the possible overheating"Overall, a better balance is emerging between deposit and credit growth, with the incremental credit-deposit ratio falling to more normal levels from stratospheric heights earlier," RBI said in its state of economy report last month. 116265281In fact, incremental deposit collection outpaced incremental credit growth, the report suggested.Scheduled commercial banks' incremental credit-deposit ratio was as high as 95.8% at end-March 2024. It came down to 82.7% as on November 1 with incremental deposit outpacing incremental credit during August-October, the RBI report said.As per the latest set of data released by RBI Thursday, public deposits with scheduled commercial banks in the country stood at '224.7 lakh crore at the end of November 29, against '203.2 lakh crore a year ago. Of this, demand deposits stood at '26.3 lakh crore, increasing 10.3% year-on-year while term deposits went up 10.6% to '198.4 lakh crore, RBI data showed.Banks' credit also increased 10.6%, to '179.6 lakh crore, up from '162.4 lakh crore a year ago.The figures are based on provisional data, the central bank said.For the past two financial years, credit expanded faster than deposit, which made the RBI worried about a possibility of liquidity mismatch at the structural level. The credit-deposit growth gap was 220 basis points in early September. The gap has now been wiped out, on constant regulatory nudge over the past few months.

New Delhi: Malls are concerned over some retailers making an early start to end of season sale (EOSS) this year instead of waiting for all brands to go on sale together.Early start of sale impacts mall revenues as they tend to operate on a revenue-sharing model with retailers. Some retailers have started their respective sales even before the onset of peak winter, triggering some mall operators to write to the retailers requesting them to delay their sales.Struggling for revenue and unsold inventory for six months, several brands started offering discounts at retail stores and online, fearing that further delay could shorten the shopping season, dimming their chances of liquidating stock."We have requested retailers to not start the EOSS in December as winter has just begun. We have also just concluded the Black Friday sale and some gap between two sales is preferred. We are hoping that EOSS is a big event and starts by January," said Pushpa Bector, senior executive director at DLF Retail, which runs premium malls in Delhi NCR.Levis, Bata, Puma, Woodland, Wrangler, Biba, Adidas, Flipkart, Myntra, Nykaa Fashion, Shoppers Stop and Lifestyle are among brands and retailers who have started discounting online or in stores, or both."We think we are starting the EOSS on time; currently it is only for our loyal customers and from next week, the EOSS will be for everyone," said Devarajan Iyer, chief executive of department store chain Lifestyle International. "Festive season was quite good and post that also, the growth has been in single digit. Some malls have approached us regarding the early EOSS but there is no such concern pan India.""India should follow the Dubai model where shopping festival with all brands on discount becomes a pulling factor. A customer should not go back empty-handed from the mall because the brand s/he was looking for was not on sale. Once all the brands go on sale together, the consumer would know whatever they will buy, will be on discount and can plan shopping accordingly," said Muhammad Ali, CEO-retail, Prestige Group. EOSS usually starts around December 18-20 and ends in January.The retail industry doesn't want to take any risk since winter was short last year and peaked only in January, that too for a brief period, creating panic in the industry to exhaust stock."The market had picked up during the festive season, but November has not been that good in terms of sales. Maybe that is the reason some brands might have started the EOSS early, though we are planning to start it in the third or fourth week of December as per usual practice," said Rajesh Jain, managing director and CEO of Lacoste India. "Ideally, all brands should go on sale together and we retailers have discussed it many times, but every brand has their own guidelines and drivers."Industry executives said early discounts will also boost cash flow, since inventory for the spring-summer collection will start arriving at their warehouses later this month.Retailers hope the early start to the end of season sales will push revenue by 8-12% year-on-year in December and January. During the just-concluded Black Friday sales, several retailers and brands reported brisk sales due to heavy discounts on offer."Some shoppers wait for the year-end sale and it is one of the biggest events in the shopping industry. That is why we try to coordinate with retailers to remain in sync. Some brands were worried about the winter, and we had a discussion with them that they should wait for some more time with inventory before putting it on sale," said Ravinder Choudhary, vice president at Vegas & Unity Group, which operates half a dozen malls in Delhi and Punjab.