Declining household financial saving trend signals preference for real estate, not distress: finance ministry

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Reserve Bank of India (RBI) in its September bulletin and expressed concerns over the share of net financial assets by households in GDP declining to 5.1% in FY23 and 7.2% in FY22 from 11.5% in FY21. In absolute terms, net household financial savings added, stood at ₹22.8 trillion in FY21 and it came down to ₹16.9 trillion in FY22 and to ₹13.75 trillion in FY23. The ministry said that in spite of the trend of adding less financial assets to their portfolio than in the year before, it is important to note that households' overall net financial assets are still growing.

"They added financial assets by a lesser magnitude than in the previous years because they have now started taking loans to buy real assets such as homes...RBI data on personal loans provides us with evidence. Personal loans given by banks have several components. Key among them are real estate loans and vehicle loans.

Both are collateralised. These two constitute 62% of the overall personal loans by the banking sector," the ministry said. The ministry said there is no distress as is being circulated in some circles.

What got experts worried was the sharp rise in household financial liability from ₹9 trillion in FY22 to ₹15.8 trillion in FY23, showing a jump from 3.8% of GDP to 5.8% of GDP. This raised fears of aggressive loan pushing by non-bank lenders and the threat of a possible rise in bad loans. The ministry argued that there has been a steady double-digit growth in loans for housing since May 2021.

"So, financial liabilities have been incurred to buy real assets. Vehicle loans have been growing at double digits year on year since April 2022 and more than 20% year on year since September 2022. The household sector is not in distress, clearly.