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.
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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 significant shift in the way Indians save, with mutual funds becoming a popular instrument for households to invest their money.
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.
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.
Share in GDP
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.
Financial liabilities of Indian households, on the other hand, made up 3.9% of GDP in 2019, which increased to 4.7% in 2024-25. Here, however, the situation has improved recently, with this proportion having hit a post-pandemic peak of 6.2% in 2023-24 before declining in 2024-25.
The data also show the changing nature of the way households in India are saving and investing their money. For example, bank deposits have remained the main destination for household savings, but mutual funds have seen their share grow rapidly over the last few years.
Deposits in commercial banks made up 32% of total household financial assets added in 2019-20, which grew marginally to 33.3% by 2024-25. In absolute terms, the quantum of household deposits added in 2019-20 stood at ₹7.7 lakh crore, which grew 54% to ₹11.8 lakh crore by 2024-25.
Rise of mutual funds
Investments in mutual funds, however, saw their share in the total household financial assets added jump from 2.6% in 2019-20 to 13.1% by 2024-25.
New mutual fund investments jumped 655% in 2024-25 to ₹4.7 lakh crore from ₹61,686 crore in 2019-20.
The increasing share of mutual funds in fresh asset creation came at the expense of investments in currency, which saw their share fall from 11.7% to 5.9% between 2019-20 and 2024-25.
Other destinations of savings and investment such as life insurance funds, provident and pension funds, equity, and small savings all saw their shares remain largely the same between 2019-20 and 2024-25.
Published – November 01, 2025 08:14 pm IST
