The Free Press Journal

Covid impact: Urban Indians’ top financial priority is savings

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NEW DELHI: As the COVID19 pandemic lef t many out of work, stuck at home and facing uncommon financial strains across the globe, a report has shown that saving money and protecting their families are the top financial priorities of urban Indians in 2021.

Two in five urban Indians (40% respondent­s) consider saving money for unexpected hardships as their top financial priority in 2021, according to the report by global research firm YouGov.

Apart from saving, a little over a third (35%) of urban Indians want to ensure they protect themselves and their families in case of emergencie­s while 27% look for ward to fulfilling their regular financial commitment­s in the new year, it stated.

The "On the Money: YouGov's Global Banking and Finance report 2021" is based on an online survey in 17 global markets done among 19,000 respondent­s, including 1,000 in India,during second week of November 2020.

Further, the report showed that paying off debts and accumulati­ng money for retirement are at a lower priority for Indians this year at 22%.

In general, saving for retirement appears to be the lowest priority for 2021, in all markets except Hong Kong (31%) and Singapore (33%), it noted.

Apart from the bigger financial targets, investment is a big priority for Asian countries such as Indonesia and Hong Kong (37% and 38%, respective­ly), Singapore (29%) and China (28%).

In India, a quarter of urban Indians interviewe­d (25%) are likely to make money by investing it in 2021, it noted.

Meanwhile, buying a home is not a top priority in most of the surveyed markets but in India, one in seven (14%) plan to purchase a home or property this year.

The importance of purchasing assets (such as car and furniture) is also high in India (15%), along with China (18%) and Denmark (16%), as compared to the rest of the world.

Returning to pre-pandemic spending habits is more of a priority in many European nations but in India, less than one in 10 (9%) consider it important, notably because saving seems to be the main goal this year, it said.

When asked about their household situation in the last six months, almost half of urban Indians (49%) said they have been actively reducing nonessenti­al expenses during this period.

The report also found that nearly a third have 'saved more' (32%) or 'relied more on savings for expenses' (31%), while a fif th (21%) claim to have taken on more debt to cover expenses.

It seems people are likely to continue restrictin­g nonessenti­al spending in the future as well, with more than threequart­ers of urban Indians (77%) saying that.

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