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Borrowing more
The Statesman Siliguri
|February 06, 2026
India’s household balance sheet is sending mixed signals.
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On paper, financial savings have begun to recover after touching multi-decade lows. Yet beneath this improvement lies a more troubling reality: families are borrowing more than ever just to keep daily life afloat. The coexistence of rising savings and rising debt is not a statistical anomaly ~ it reflects an economy where income growth is failing to keep pace with the cost of living. Over the past few years, household borrowing has shifted decisively away from asset creation. Loans once taken largely for homes or long-term investment are increasingly being used for routine consumption. This change matters because consumption-led borrowing offers no future income stream to service the debt.
This story is from the February 06, 2026 edition of The Statesman Siliguri.
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