Nearly Rs 1.8 trillion or 50% of the outstanding Rs 2,000 denomination notes in circulation as of March 31 have come back to banks since May 19, when the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) called for withdrawal of the currency, governor Shaktikanta Das said. He said broadly on a provisional basis, about 85% of Rs 2,000 notes are coming back as deposits into bank accounts while the rest are being exchanged at bank counters.
“As far as Rs 2,000 bank notes are concerned, as on March 31, total Rs 3.62 trillion of Rs 2,000 bank notes were in circulation… so far, about Rs 1.80 lakh crore of Rs 2,000 notes have come back. This is roughly about 50% of Rs 2,000 notes which were in circulation on March 31,” Das said.
State Bank of India chief economist Soumya Kanti Ghosh said, “As we have earlier highlighted, around 85% of the Rs 2,000 notes are deposited in the bank accounts and not exchanged for smaller denominations. Thus, bank deposits are likely to increase by at least Rs 2 lakh crore, assuming some of the notes would already be with banks in currency chests…”
Das also said the trend “more or less” is line with the RBI’s expectations and a good pattern that was noticed was that there has been no rush from people in exchanging or depositing monies at any of the banks. However, Das urged that going forward, everyone should not rush or go to the bank in a panic mode.