Household Stability:
As the Union Budget 2026 approaches, India’s macroeconomic indicators present a picture of aggregate stability and relative strength amidst global uncertainty.A deeper analysis of the Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI) Financial Stability Report ( 2025) and Annual Report 2024–25 reveals a concerning structural shift that households are saving less, borrowing more, and increasingly absorbing economic risks that were previously shared by the State.Despite stable macro indicators ahead of Union Budget 2026, RBI data reveal declining and volatile household savings, rising debt, and increasing reliance on credit to sustain consumption, shifting economic risk from the State to households.Debt-financed consumption and growing unsecured credit threaten financial stability, widen inequality, strain banks, and weaken India’s demographic dividend, underscoring the need to boost real incomes, savings, and social safety nets.
