Bank credit growth declined to 8.5 per cent in January from 13.5 per cent in the year-ago period led by a sharp slowdown in loans to the services sector, according to RBI data.

Growth in advances to the services sector decelerated to 8.9 per cent from 23.9 per cent in January 2019. Bank loan growth to non-banking financial companies (NBFCs) slowed to 32.2 per cent in the reporting month from a growth of 48.3 per cent a year-ago.

During the month, the personal loan segment grew 16.9 per cent. Within personal loans, credit to the housing segment grew 17.5 per cent from 18.4 per cent, while education loan showed a negative growth of 3.1 per cent against a negative growth of 2.3 per cent in January 2019.