Indian Households Piling on Debt Faster Than Creating Assets: RBI Data

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 data from the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) 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.

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

Visualisation: Indian Households Piling on Debt Faster Than Creating Assets

indian 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 so far released data. this is a growth of 48% over this period.

The financial assets added by Indian households each year stood at 12% of India’s GDP in 2019-20, which declined to 10.8% by 2024-25. This figure has remained largely stable at this level in the post-pandemic period.