The stronger deposit numbers followed the RBI’s opening of a special window for dollar inflows. A sharp rise in FCNR-B deposits provided the main push, making these inflows central to the improvement in overall deposit growth.

Bank lending, meanwhile, grew 19.1% year-on-year. That was a slight slowdown, but credit was still expanding faster than deposits. The two reported growth rates were 1.3 percentage points apart, showing that the deposit surge had not brought deposit growth above lending growth.

The headline deposit figure therefore needs to be read alongside its source. Faster overall growth did not mean banks had overcome their difficulties in gathering savings locally. The report points to continued challenges in domestic mobilisation even as FCNR-B inflows strengthened the total.

The report does not give a separate growth rate for domestic deposits or say how much of the overall increase came from FCNR-B accounts. It also does not state how long the stronger inflows might continue. Those missing details limit what the headline number alone can tell readers about the wider deposit picture.