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How Indians Save and Borrow: Six Charts on Household Finances

Indian household financial assets reached about ₹320 trillion in March 2024, while deposits remained the leading saving instrument and NBFCs gained share of new borrowing.
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Indian households held about ₹320 trillion in financial assets and ₹121 trillion in liabilities as of March 2024. The latest figures show a changing mix: deposits still lead household financial savings, but their share has shrunk, non-bank finance companies account for a larger share of new borrowing, and net financial savings have fallen. These six charts distinguish what households hold from what they add each year—and from the physical wealth that financial accounts do not capture.

1. Household financial assets exceed liabilities—but the totals are stocks, not annual savings

As of March 2024, Indian households held roughly ₹320 trillion ($3.7 trillion) in financial assets and ₹121 trillion ($1.4 trillion) in liabilities, according to IndiaSpend’s June 27, 2025 analysis for Scroll. The figures describe accumulated financial positions at a point in time. They are not amounts saved or borrowed during that year, and they do not include all household wealth such as homes, land, or physical gold.

Subtracting liabilities from financial assets gives a simple difference of about ₹199 trillion. That is not a complete measure of household net worth: it leaves out physical assets and depends on the scope and valuation of the financial accounts. IndiaSpend/Scroll’s charts and underlying analysis use Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation and Reserve Bank of India data; the 2023–24 RBI estimates cited there are preliminary and may be revised.

2. In 2022–23, households added more to financial assets than to liabilities

During 2022–23, Indian households added ₹29.7 trillion to financial assets and ₹15.6 trillion to liabilities, as reported by IndiaSpend/Scroll in 2025. These are annual additions, unlike the March 2024 totals above. The asset additions were larger, but that difference alone does not reveal how much households saved after accounting for other components or changes in the value of assets.

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To give the totals a household-scale reference, the article divides them by an estimated 294 million households: about ₹1 lakh in financial assets and ₹53,000 in liabilities added per household. These are arithmetic averages based on the estimate, not amounts received or borrowed by a typical household; actual amounts vary, and the household count is not a direct survey count for every family.

3. Deposits remain the largest financial-saving instrument, but lose share

Deposits were still the biggest component of household financial savings in 2023–24, but their share of financial assets declined over the decade. IndiaSpend/Scroll’s analysis reports the following shifts between 2013–14 and 2023–24:

Financial instrument 2013–14 share 2023–24 share What changed
Deposits 56% 41% Still the largest category, but down 15 percentage points.
Shares and debentures 2% 9% Up 7 percentage points.
Claims on government Not stated (IndiaSpend/Scroll, 2025) 9% The 2013–14 comparison value is not stated in the analysis summarized here.
Pension and provident funds 15% 21% Up 6 percentage points.

These are shares of financial assets, not shares of all household wealth. A smaller deposit share does not by itself mean deposits fell in rupee terms: the mix can change as other assets grow. The figures show that investment in shares and debentures and claims on government formed a larger share by 2023–24, while deposits remained the largest single category.

4. Banks still supplied most new borrowing, while NBFCs gained ground

The lender figures compare shares of newly added household liabilities, not the total outstanding loans held by each lender. In IndiaSpend/Scroll’s analysis, banks’ share fell and non-bank financial companies’ (NBFCs) share rose between 2013–14 and 2022–23:

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Lender 2013–14 share of added liabilities 2022–23 share of added liabilities Change
Banks 92% 76% Down 16 percentage points; banks remained the largest source.
NBFCs 2% 21% Up 19 percentage points.

The shift indicates that NBFCs accounted for a larger fraction of new liabilities in the later year. It does not mean bank lending disappeared or that NBFCs held 21% of all household debt. The supplied shares describe the composition of additions in the specified years.

5. Net financial savings fell to 5.3% of GDP in 2023–24

IndiaSpend/Scroll reports net financial savings of ₹15.5 trillion in 2023–24, 33% below ₹23.3 trillion in 2020–21. The 2023–24 figure was 5.3% of GDP, described in the article as the lowest share in five decades. Net financial savings are a flow measure; they should not be confused with the stock of ₹320 trillion in financial assets, the stock of liabilities, or the difference between those two stocks.

Separately, the RBI’s Financial Stability Report 2024 put household debt at 42.9% of GDP in June 2024. This is a macroeconomic ratio comparing household debt with the country’s annual output. It is not an average interest rate, a share of each household’s income owed in repayments, or a measure of the payment burden facing a particular borrower. IndiaSpend/Scroll says the increase reflected more borrowers rather than higher average indebtedness.

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6. Financial accounts do not capture the importance of gold and property

Financial instruments are only part of household wealth. The National Sample Survey Office’s All India Debt and Investment Survey 2012, as cited by Dvara Research and IndiaSpend/Scroll, estimated that average household wealth consisted of 84% physical assets, 11% gold bullion, and 5% financial assets. Those percentages come from a 2012 survey, so they should not be treated as a current wealth breakdown or directly combined with 2023–24 financial-flow data.

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Real estate is one reason the distinction matters. The RBI, quoted by IndiaSpend/Scroll, has noted that a “sizeable part” of household credit is used for real estate, alongside a compositional shift in savings away from financial and toward physical savings. Households can therefore borrow to acquire a physical asset while the financial statistics show a liability; the asset itself is not counted as a financial instrument. The same analysis reports ₹63,397 crore in household gold and silver ornaments in 2022–23, using an RBI/Dataful series.

What the six charts show—and what they cannot

  • More financial assets than liabilities: March 2024 stocks provide a broad balance-sheet comparison, not a complete wealth measure.
  • Substantial annual additions: 2022–23 flows show additions to both assets and liabilities; per-household averages are estimates, not descriptions of a typical family.
  • A changing formal-finance mix: deposits remain largest, while shares and debentures, government claims, and pension and provident funds represent larger shares than before.
  • A shift among new lenders: NBFCs gained share of added liabilities, though banks remained the largest source in 2022–23.
  • Lower net financial saving: the 2023–24 figure is a flow and is distinct from debt-to-GDP and balance-sheet stocks.
  • Physical wealth matters: older survey evidence underscores why financial-account data alone cannot answer how wealthy Indian households are.

NITI Aayog policy material argues that financial inclusion should be paired with financial literacy so people understand the benefits of formal systems for sending, saving, and borrowing money. The figures here show why that distinction matters: household finances encompass deposits, investments, formal borrowing, and assets such as homes and gold, but each dataset measures a different part of the picture.

Product prices and availability are accurate as of the date/time indicated and are subject to change. Any price and availability information displayed on Amazon at the time of purchase will apply.

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