'33% Of Your Salary Is Being Paid Off To Emis': Analyst Says Debt Is Crushing Middle Class India

India’s mediate people is drowning successful indebtedness and astir don’t moreover recognize really deep. A staggering 33% of monthly salaries are vanishing into EMIs earlier rent, groceries, aliases savings are moreover factored in, according to a caller study by Perfios and PwC.

The data, drawn from complete 3 cardinal tech-savvy Indians, paints a bleak image of rising financial fragility. For many, EMIs aren't conscionable a burden, they're a lifestyle. And it’s getting worse.

Senior expert Sujay U, sharing nan findings connected LinkedIn, notes that precocious earners are deed moreover harder, pinch up to 45% of their income going toward indebtedness repayments. 

These debts span everything from location and car loans to in installments cards and flashy buy-now-pay-later schemes.

By nan extremity of 2024, family indebtedness successful India has surged to 42% of GDP—a number that should "rattle america all," Sujay warns. In cities for illustration Mumbai, conscionable paying nan location indebtedness tin eat up astir half a paycheck.

This EMI compression is leaving small room for building emergency savings aliases semipermanent investments. National savings person collapsed to 5.3% of GDP, a 47-year low.

The risks are systemic. Any daze to income—job loss, illness, recession—now carries a precocious consequence of default. The RBI has already flagged a emergence successful delinquencies, peculiarly successful unsecured and microfinance loans.

Sujay calls retired nan taste displacement down nan crisis: “The caller EMI-driven manner intends flashy gadgets and instant gratification, but it’s debt-driven and threatens semipermanent financial health.”

He adds a blunt warning: EMIs crossing 40% of nett income are a reddish flag. Financial literacy and budgeting, he says, are nary longer optional—they’re endurance skills.

Published on: Jul 3, 2025 7:50 AM IST