Growth in the amount of credit extended by Nepal's commercial banks to the private sector has slowed, partly as a result of the tighter monetary policy pursued by the central bank. In the first seven months of 2010/11 the value of bank loans rose by 8.2% year on year, to NRs38.5bn, about one-half of the year-earlier growth rate of 16.6%. Loans to the country's main productive industries, mainly food packing and processing companies, expanded by 18.2% year on year, from 11.3% in the year-earlier period. Such industries account for 22% of total loans outstanding. However, most other categories of borrowers took out new loans at a much slower pace than they did a year earlier. Growth in loans to wholesalers and retailers slowed to 12.3%, from 25% in the year-earlier period; growth in loans to finance and insurance companies slowed to 3.1% from 41.1%; and growth in loans to construction companies slowed to 4.2% from 9.6%. Although the slower pace of credit growth may point to a weakening in overall economic activity, the authorities have welcomed a slowdown in lending to "unproductive" sectors of the economy. In the first seven months of 2009/10 bank lending to the real estate sector rose by 60.4%, however, in the first seven months of 2010/11 real-estate loans expanded by only 3.4%.