FM Nirmala Sitharaman: Household Debt In India Lower Than Most Emerging Markets

In her reply to opposition charges in Rajya Sabha that household debt in India has ballooned to unmanageable levels, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said the situation in the country was much more comfortable that other emerging market economies and even several developed nations. Citing a household debt figure of 39% of GDP, the FM said the figure exceeded 100% in many countries. According to her, the asset-liability situation in India was comfortable and the inequality in urban and rural India had shrunk in the past 9 years. The FM conceded that Covid had reset various production factors, bringing about a major churn in the manufacturing sector. Quoting figures from National Accounts Statistics, she said compensation to employees at current prices has witnessed a CAGR of 11.1% during the period 2014-15 to 2022-23 and that 250 million Indians had escaped poverty in the past 9 years.