This slide deck analyses the changes in the financial portfolio of rural households between 1993 and 2003, and between 2003 and 2013 using three successive rounds of NSSO All India Debt and Investment Survey (AIDIS). This can be a useful guide to understand the evolution of household financial portfolios over two decades during which there have been sustained efforts at the policy level towards both financialisation of resources and formal financial inclusion—by both the Government and the RBI—and how these policies have differentially impacted the portfolios of rural households falling into different wealth quintiles.
The analysis starts with the breakup between physical and financial assets in the overall assets portfolio of households and then takes a deep dive into the growth trends for physical and financial assets portfolios. While urban households have witnessed considerable growth in the share of financial assets in the overall portfolio, only a marginal growth is observed in rural households, across all wealth quintiles. Land and house—which together make up a major share of the physical asset portfolio—have seen their collective share dip over the period, as the share of gold and jewellery has increased especially among the poorer households. In the composition of financial asset portfolios, the share of the provident fund—which occupies a major share of the financial asset portfolio—has witnessed growth for the wealthier households but dipped for the poorer households.
The slide deck with the complete analysis can be accessed here.
