Hospitality & real estate worst hit by pandemic

Hotels, tourism and commercial real estate may be the worst-hit sectors amid the Covid-19-driven lockdown, according to experts, causing a reversal of sorts since this cluster contributed the most to the credit growth of banks until February this year. While the tourism, hotels and restaurants segment saw a 16.9% year-on-year increase in loans to Rs 45,000 crore in February, commercial real estate credit expanded 15.1% to Rs 2.29 lakh crore, according to the latest Reserve Bank of India (RBI) data. These sectors are now prone to defaults as business has come to a near standstill during the lockdown, said experts.