Estimates of weighted average lending rate (WALR) of banks both in nominal and real terms are presented in Chart 2. The real rates are obtained by deflating the nominal rates by the annual average wholesale price inflation.
During the period of the high growth phase of 2003–08, WALR of all scheduled commercial banks stood at 12.4 per cent, which dropped to 11.0 per cent during the crisis period of 2008–10. Subsequently, it went up and has remained around 12 per cent thereafter (Chart 3).