Loan demand is bouncing back after 2 yrs of credit contraction: SBI chief

Companies are steadily drawing down from a $71 billion loan pipeline, said Dinesh Kumar Khara

Consumer cutbacks due to raging inflation and higher borrowing costs are failing to dent investment plans at Indian businesses tapping the country’s biggest lender, a sign that a recovery in Asia’s third-largest economy is gathering pace.

Companies are steadily drawing down from a $71 billion loan pipeline, Dinesh Kumar Khara, chairman of State Bank of India, told Bloomberg News in an interview at his Mumbai office. Loan growth at the 216-year-old lender, a banker to one out of every three Indians, is expected to be robust, underpinned by demand from businesses after two straight years of credit contraction, Khara said.

That broadly