Kolkata, June 29 (IANS): State-run Allahabad Bank aims at 10 per cent business growth in the current fiscal (2016-17) year, a top official of the bank said on Wednesday.

"Business growth target is 10 per cent this fiscal. It grew about 3.4 per cent in the last fiscal," bank's Chairman and Managing Director Rakesh Sethi told IANS after the 14th Annual General Meeting here.

The total business of the bank stood at Rs 358,352 crore as of March 31, 2016 as compared to Rs 346,519 crore the previous year.

Going forward, the bank was looking at a growth of 20 per cent in the retail credit portfolio.

Also, a major thrust will be given to loans having low capital requirement such as housing loans and gold loans, Sethi told shareholders during the meeting.

The retail credit portfolio stood at Rs 25,894 crore, up 19.20 per cent against Rs 21,723 crore in the previous year.

The lender said it would adopt a three-pronged strategy -- recovery of overdues, achieving healthy growth in retail advances and mobilising CASA deposits on liability side with emphasis on savings bank accounts.

The share of retail credit portfolio against the gross credit, however, increased from 14.19 per cent in 2014-15 to 16.42 per cent in the last fiscal. Housing loan, a key constituent under retail credit, grew at 27.39 per cent.

The official did not have any information about the bank's merger with bigger banks.

"I have no information," he said while answering a query of one of the shareholders regarding merger.

In the bank's Annual Report 2015-16, Sethi said improvement in consumption demand in both urban and rural areas is expected to drive the growth in manufacturing output while capacity additions and government initiatives are likely to give a boost to the electricity and mining sectors.

The city-headquartered bank posted a net loss of Rs 743.31 crore in the last fiscal due to higher provisions that increased by 27.05 per cent during the year.