Households piling on debt faster than creating assets’

T.C.A. Sharad Raghavan

 

New Delhi

The annual financial debt accumulated by Indian households has grown faster than their annual financial assets since the pre-pandemic year 2019-20, an analysis of Reserve Bank of India data has found.

The amount of financial assets added each year has grown 48% between 2019 and 2025, while the annual liabilities have grown 102% over that period. Even as a percentage of Gross Domestic Product (GDP), the annual financial asset addition is lower this year than before the pandemic, while the annual liabilities added are higher.

Data also reveal a significant shift in the way Indians save, with mutual funds becoming a popular instrument for households to invest their money.

Households added ₹24.1 lakh crore to their financial assets in 2019-20, which grew to ₹35.6 lakh crore in 2024-25, the latest period for which the RBI has released data. This is a growth of 48%. On the other hand, households added ₹15.7 lakh crore worth of financial liabilities to their portfolios in 2024-25, which is 102% higher than the ₹7.5 lakh crore they added in 2019-20.

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