Why Is India Saving Less?

Recent data released by RBI revealed that the net savings of households dropped to a five-decade low, leading to concerns about lifestyles and preferences in recent times

- JOYDEEP SEN

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) Bulletin released on September 18, 2023, published data on the “Flow of Financial Assets and Liabilities of Households”. This data is about financial assets and financial liabilities of households across India.

The surveys conducted by wealth managers or wealth surveyors are usually confined to the cities and towns, and hence the outcome would be different but this one includes every corner of the country, including rural areas.

 Financial assets, in the RBI report, are deployments in bank deposits, other deposits (non-banks), life insurance, Provident Fund (PF) and pension, small savings schemes in post office, and investments in mutual funds and equity. Financial liabilities are loans from banks and other entities.

Data And Trends

The data led to a lot of debate. It was revealed that the net savings of households have dropped to a five-decade low. This led to concerns about lifestyle and preferences of people in current times.

The Ministry of Finance also issued a clarification that the low savings rate is not so much of a concern, but a change in approach to managing money; people are availing of loans to finance assets, such as real estate, cars, etc.

But before we comment on the good or the bad part of it, let us first understand what is happening. The data on financial assets of households has been published on two parameters: flow and stock. Flow implies incremental savings or investments in a given time period, similar to how a profit and loss account measures the result of a given time period. Stock means the stock of financial assets on a given date, like how a balance sheet shows an entity’s snapshot on a given date.