Page 344 - economic_survey_2021-2022

318 Economic Survey 2021-22

Passenger traffic
9.12 Travel restrictions in the early half of 2020-21 had halted the movement of Indian airlines
and railways leading to a sharp fall in air and rail passenger traffic (Figure 1(e and f)). Domestic
passenger traffic (both air and rail) had then started to recover gradually from August 2020 on
a monthly basis but fell again in April-May 2021 due to the disruptions caused by second wave
of Covid-19. It has picked up since then. During April- November 2021, airlines carried over
9.56 crore domestic passengers. Monthly data suggests that air passenger traffic is gradually
reaching the pre-pandemic levels. Railway passenger traffic, on the other hand, is still much
below the pre-pandemic levels. During April-November 2021, Indian railways carried over
185.1 crore domestic passengers. The emergence of the Omicron variant and the consequential
travel restrictions pose a threat to the domestic passenger traffic in the near term.

Bank credit to Services Sector

9.13 Bank credit growth to services sector which had moderated significantly in 2019, started
picking up in 2020, increasing to 8.8 per cent (YoY) at the end December 2020, as compared
to 6.2 per cent in December 2019 (Figure 2). This momentum has lost its pace in 2021-22.
Bank credit growth decelerated to 3.6 per cent YoY at the end of November 2021 as compared
to 8.2 per cent a year ago. However, it is important to note that corporates have raised more
money through capital markets than banking capital in 2021-22 so far (See Chapter 4 Monetary
Management and Financial Intermediation for details).

Figure 2: Growth in Bank Credit to Services Sector

25

20

15
Per cent

10

5

0
Jan-19 Mar-19 May-19 Jul-19 Sep-19 Nov-19 Jan-20 Mar-20 May-20 Jul-20 Sep-20 Nov-20 Jan-21 Mar-21 May-21 Jul-21 Sep-21 Nov-21

Source: RBI.