Skip to main content

India's household savings slowed down in 2012-17; to 'adversely impact GDP growth'

 
India Ratings and Research (Ind-Ra), the top Indian subsidiary of the Fitch Group, a global leader in financial information services, believes if the declining trend of household saving continues, it may pose a "serious challenge to the gross domestic product (GDP) growth and macroeconomic stability."
Suggesting that its estimation is based on the premise that the household sector, comprising resident households, not-for-profit institutions and quasi corporates, is the largest contributor to the savings in the economy, Ind-Ra says, during financial years (FY) 2012-17, it accounted 60.93% of the economy’s total savings, as against private corporations' 35% and public sector's 4.07%.
"Quasi corporates including unregistered micro, small and medium enterprises do not prepare their accounts similar to private registered/listed corporates. Thus, the falling savings rate (gross savings/gross domestic product) of the sector does not augur well for the economy", Ind-Ra says.
According to the top rating agency, "The growth of household savings at 3.7% was the lowest during this period among the three broad categories", even as the savings of the private corporations "grew 17.4%, while that of the public sector increased 12.9% during FY12-FY17."
Based on this, Ind-Ra says, "Household savings rate (gross household savings/ GDP) plunged to 16.3% during FY12-FY17." Pointing out that in FY12 it was 23.6%, it notes, "Household savings intermediated by banks and other non-banking financial entities are a major source of investment funding for the Indian economy."
Giving more details, Ind-Ra says, the declining share of household sector is visible even in case of nominal gross value added (GVA), where its share declined to 43.2% in FY17, as against 45.5% in FY12 "because of lower nominal GVA growth of the household sector than that of the private corporations and the overall economy".
It adds, "In FY17, the household sector contributed 94.8% to agriculture, 27.5% to industrial and 34.4% to services sectors’ nominal GVA."
"Although the twin policy shock of demonetisation and Goods and Services Tax had economy-wide ramification, it was more pronounced in case of the household sector", pointing out that the savings rate of the household sector "plummeted" 153 basis points (bp) year on year (yoy) in FY17, while for private corporations fell 12bp yoy. However, savings rate for the public sector increased by 37bp."
Basis point or bp refers to a common unit of measure for interest rates and other percentages in finance. One basis point is equal to 1/100th of 1%, or 0.01%, or 0.0001, and is used to denote the percentage change in a financial instrument.
The top rating agency further points out, "Even as micro, small and medium enterprises (MSME) category of the household sector finds it difficult to access credit, the credit to resident household has been rising at a much faster pace lately than the overall non-food credit."
Thus, it adds, "The share of resident households (personal loan) in non-food credit reached 25.9% in 1QFY19 (FY12: 18.2%). Resident households have emerged as a preferred choice for the banks post the deterioration in the asset quality of banks, owing to significant lending to corporates turning into non-performing assets (NPAs)."
Ind-Ra's warning comes even as it revised down its FY19 economic growth forecast to 7.2% from 7.4% earlier.

Comments

TRENDING

Disappearing schools: India's education landscape undergoing massive changes

   The other day, I received a message from education rights activist Mitra Ranjan, who claims that a whopping one lakh schools across India have been closed down or merged. This seemed unbelievable at first sight. The message from the activist, who is from the advocacy group Right to Education (RTE) Forum, states that this is happening as part of the implementation of the National Education Policy (NEP), 2020, which floated the idea of school integration/consolidation.

RTI framework ‘nuked’? SHANTI Bill triggers alarm, grants centre sweeping secrecy powers

Has the Government of India finally moved to completely change important provisions of the Right to Information (RTI) Act, that too without bringing about any amendment in the top transparency law? It would seem so, if one is to believe well known civil society leaders' keen observations on the nuclear energy Bill passed in the Lok Sabha.  Senior RTI activist Amrita Johri has sharply criticised the recently passed Sustainable Harnessing and Advancement of Nuclear Energy for Transforming India (SHANTI) Bill, 2025, saying that it has effectively “nuked” the Right to Information (RTI) Act through the back door. 

'Shameful lies': Ambedkar defamed, Godse glorified? Dalit leader vows legal battle

A few days back, I was a little surprised to receive a Hindi article in plain text format from veteran Gujarat Dalit rights leader Valjibhai Patel , known for waging many legal battles under the banner of the Council of Social Justice (CSJ) on behalf of socially oppressed communities.

A Hindu alternative to Valentine's Day? 'Shiv-Parvati was first love marriage in Universe'

The other day, I was searching on Google a quote on Maha Shivratri which I wanted to send to someone, a confirmed Shiv Bhakt, quite close to me -- with an underlying message to act positively instead of being negative. On top of the search, I chanced upon an article in, imagine!, a Nashik Corporation site which offered me something very unusual.  I don't know who owns this site, for there is nothing on it in the About Us link. It merely says, the Nashik Corporation  site   "is an educational and news website of the municipal corporation. Today, education and payment of tax are completely online." It goes on to add, "So we provide some of the latest information about Property Tax, Water Tax, Marriage Certificate, Caste Certificate, etc. So all taxpayer can get all information of their municipal in a single place.some facts about legal and financial issues that different city corporations face, but I was least interested in them."  Surely, this didn't interest...

Inside an UnMute conversation: Reflections on media, civil society and my journey

I usually avoid being interviewed. I have always believed that journalists, especially in India, are generalists who may suddenly be assigned a “beat” they know little—sometimes nothing—about. Still, when my friend  Gagan Sethi , a well-known human rights activist, phoned a few weeks ago asking if I would join a podcast on  civil society  and the media, I agreed.

When a telecom giant fails the consumer: My Airtel experience

  Initially, I was not considering writing this blog about why I found Airtel —one of India’s premier communication service providers—to have an outrageously poor sales and customer-service experience, at least in Ahmedabad , Gujarat ’s business capital. However, the last SMS I received from Airtel regarding my request for a Wi-Fi connection in my flat in the Vejalpur area left me stunned.

It is? Modi perspires four times a day to ensure face glow? But why he loved ACs?

A former Gujarat government official recently shared a tweet   by Subramaniam Swamy where a video shows Prime Minister Narendra Modi telling school children in his hometown Vadnagar that their face would glow if they perspire four times a day. He suggested his face was glowing exactly because of this reason. I have no idea whether facial glow is linked with how many times you perspire in a day, but what I know is, Modi would profusely avoid any perspiration when he was Gujarat chief minister. Thus, in 2006, Modi undertook a fast in support of the Narmada project, which he said the Centre was not supporting. The fast, it was declared, lasted for about 51 hours. I don't recall which month it was, but to avoid perspiration, he got installed air conditions in the open, just next to the spot where he and his colleagues were undertaking fast for the Narmada dam. When some enterprising journalists tried watching the ACs, they were manhandled -- for it would show his fast in poor light. S...

Top Hindu builder ties up with Muslim investor for a huge minority housing society in Ahmedabad

There is a flutter in Ahmedabad's Vejalpur area, derogatorily referred to as the "border" because, on its eastern side, there is a sprawling minority area called Juhapura, where around five lakh Muslims live. The segregation is so stark that virtually no Muslim lives in Vejalpur, populated by around four lakh Hindus, and no Hindu lives in Juhapura.

From Ahmedabad's CG Road to the Supreme Court: My brush with the stray dog menace

It was the mid-2000s when my children wanted me to take them to the municipal market on CG Road — Ahmedabad’s posh upmarket area — where they said Kentucky Fried Chicken had opened a shop. I was reluctant, but eventually had to drive them in my Maruti Frontie car from Gandhinagar , 35 kilometres away, where we lived. After finding a suitable place to park, we went in search of the high-profile restaurant. After roaming here and there, and even asking other shopkeepers in the market area, we still couldn’t find our supposed destination. So, we decided to return to our car and drive to some other place for lunch. Suddenly, a stray dog jumped on me, catching hold of my pant. While I managed to free myself immediately — with people around shooing away the dog — I sustained a few scratches on my leg. I immediately rang up a doctor in Gandhinagar, who advised me to take an initial injection in Ahmedabad right away, which I did. I took three more shots on my return to Gandhinagar. I have ne...