International Retail Loans Availed By Women Rise 25 % In 2022: Report

New Delhi: Outstanding retail loan availed by women rose 25 per cent to Rs 26 lakh crore as of December 2022 from Rs 20.7 lakh crore a year ago, taking their share in overall retail borrowings to 26 per cent, an analysis showed. The share of women borrowers was 25.3 per cent as of December 2021. According to an analysis by credit data company Crif Highmark, the debt portfolio is led by property loans which rose 26 per cent on-year to Rs 7,88,827 crore or 29 per cent of the outstanding, and gold loans soared by 64 per cent to Rs 7,06,047 crore, or 42 per cent of the total, indicating the rising level of financial stress households are facing. Home loans rose 20 per cent to Rs 30,52,041 crore or 32 per cent of the outstanding as of December 2022 from December 2021 when it was Rs 25,86,902 crore.

Business loan grew by 25 per cent to Rs 13,73,899 crore, or 23 per cent of the total, up from 22 per cent a year ago, while personal loans jumped by 35 per cent to Rs 10,05,864 crore, which was 17 per cent of the total, and agri plus tractor loans gained 8 per cent to Rs 9,14,412 crore, or 19 per cent of the total, the analysis showed.

Auto loans rose 26 per cent to Rs 5,72,366 crore which was 18 per cent, education loans rose 25 per cent to Rs 1,29,598 crore, which is 35 per cent of the outstanding and two-wheeler loans gained 42 per cent to Rs 1,00,042 crore, which was 18 per cent.

Besides, consumer durable loans jumped 29 per cent to Rs 57,700 crore, or 23 per cent, and other retail loans rose 19 per cent to Rs 13,28,115 crore, or 19 per cent, taking the total retail loans to Rs 1,00,28,910 crore, or 26 per cent of the total, registering a growth of 25 per cent on-year.

Top five states for female borrowers for home loans are Maharashtra (Rs 2,18,162 crore), Karnataka (Rs 99,679 crore), Tamil Nadu (Rs 92,841 crore), Gujarat (Rs 75,843 crore) and Telangana (Rs 75,837 crore). When it comes to business loans too, Maharashtra tops the list with Rs 47,225 crore outstanding loans, followed by Tamil Nadu (Rs 41,700 crore), Karnataka (Rs 25,890 crore), Gujarat (Rs 22,692 crore) and Uttar Pradesh (Rs 20,252 crore).

The list of personal loan borrowers was led by Tamil Nadu (Rs 22,247 crore), Maharashtra (Rs 20,988 crore), Karnataka (Rs 17,795 crore), Telangana (Rs 15,454 crore) and Andhra Pradesh with an outstanding of Rs 12,837 crore.

In agri and tractor loans, Andhra topped with Rs 24,549 crore, followed by Uttar Pradesh (Rs 20,344 core), Tamil Nadu (Rs 16,616 crore), Kerala (Rs 15,240 crore) and Karnataka at Rs 14,878 crore. In the property loans too, Maharashtra was top with Rs 40,477 crore, followed by Tamil Nadu (Rs 28,461 crore), Karnataka (Rs 24,357 crore), Gujarat (Rs 19,279 crore) and Telangana at Rs 15,372 crore. This shows that women borrowers from southern states have higher credit exposure compared to their western and northern counterparts.

The share of women female borrowers under the age bracket of 35 has continued to increase over the past three years from 38.3 per cent in 2020 to 43.4 per cent in 2022, while their share in the 35-50 age group has declined from 43.5 per cent in 2020 to 41.2 per cent in 2020.