NRIs' deposits touch $134 billion in November 2022: RBI bulletin

 

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) scaled down figures for non-resident Indians (NRIs) at the end of October 2022 by $1.88 billion to $132.66 billion. This was caused predominantly by a revision in the amount for outstanding non-resident (external), or NRE, deposits by $1.9 billion in October to $94.75 billion, according to the RBI bulletin for January.

 

Old data for October 2022 had shown that outstanding amounts in NRI deposits had broken the streak of continuous fall for the first time in the fiscal year.

 

The revised figure of $132.66 billion (October 2022) indicates the trend of depletion continued in October 2022.
 

 

 

However, there was a rise in outstanding NRI deposits at the end of November 2022, which stood at $134.49 billion, from the revised figures for October 2022.

 

The outstanding NRI deposits continue to be lower than $140.74 billion in November 2021 and $139.02 billion in March 2022.

 

Also, the flow of money into NRI deposits rose substantially to $3.64 billion from April-November 2022. This was against $2.6 billion in April-October 2021.

 

Bankers said while flows into deposits have increased, some funds (from deposits) were used for purchases during the festival season. This is one of the reasons for the dip in outstanding deposits in 2022-23.

 

In July, the RBI took steps to enhance fresh inflows into NRI deposit accounts.

 

These sops were the easing of a cap on interest rate on foreign currency non-resident (bank) and NRE deposits. And, they were also exempt from maintaining cash reserve ratio and statutory liquidity ratio on incremental deposits until November 4, 2022.