ASIAN ECONOMIES-Not By Reform Alone

could be stimulated (except for the Rs 400 crore package for IDBI in January). It is the small-scale and informal sectors which suffer the most in such a situation, though they deserve liberal credit dispensation which could play a role in the revival of industrial output and employment. However, the policy signals in this regard have been quite the contrary, as a result of which there has been a steady decline in the share of bank credit in favour of the priority sectors. As at the end of March 1993 priority sector advances stood at Rs 46,653 crore as against Rs 44,581 crore at the end of March 1992, indicating a 4.6 per cent increase in 1992-93 (against an increase of 19.3 per cent in total nonfood credit) and a decline in the share of such credit in total bank credit to as low as 36.6 per cent in March 1993, against the level of 45 per cent a few years back and the prescribed target of 40 per cent. A similar structural deterioration is seen in the steady decline in the share of 'rural' areas in total bank credit: from 14.6 per cent in March 1990 to 14 per cent in March 1993.