In the run up to the Budget 2025, Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman tabled the Economic Survey 2024-2025 in the Parliament on Jan 31, giving an assessment of the economy’s performance in the current financial year while listing out the challenges ahead.
The survey document keeps GDP growth forecast for FY26 in the range of 6.3 to 6.8 percent.
Foreign exchange reserves remain at $640.3 billion at the end of Dec 2024 while the current account deficit stands at 1.2 percent of GDP in Q2FY25, it reveals.
However, an interesting thing relating to retail investors’ investing pattern which the survey has revealed is the contribution of retail investors to mutual funds via systematic investment plan (SIP).
There are over 10 crore SIP accounts in Dec 2024 (in comparison to 5.2 crore in FY 2022) with cumulative SIP inflows of ₹10.9 lakh crore since inception, the Economic Survey 2024-25 reveals.
Monthly average gross SIP flows have more than doubled in the last three years from ₹0.10 lakh crore in FY 22 to ₹0.23 lakh crore in FY 25 (up to Dec 2024), it further highlights.
Total assets managed by SIPs amount to ₹13.6 lakh crore, while the corresponding figure in FY 2022 stood at 5.8 lakh crore, and 10.7 lakh crore in FY 2024.
SIP contribution rose from 1.2 lakh crore in FY 2022 to 2.1 lakh crore in FY 2025 (upto Dec 2024), the data reveals.
As a result of all of the above, mutual fund ownership in listed companies has now risen to a new all-time high of 9.5 percent in Q2FY25, vis-à-vis 8.7 percent in FY24, the Economic Survey reveals.
What is an SIP?
For the unversed, SIP or systematic investment plan is a mode of investing into mutual funds wherein you invest in small chunks at regular intervals such as every month, every week or even day. This not only keeps your financial burden low but also helps you capitalise on the benefits of rupee cost averaging.
This mode of investment has become immensely popular in the recent past, particularly among small investors who can’t afford to cough up large sums for investing.
Thanks to the spike in retail participation in mutual funds, the number of unique investors has doubled from 2.9 crore in FY21 to 5.6 crore as of December 2024, the Economic Survey reveals.
This surge, coupled with strong market performance, resulted in the total asset size of mutual funds to touch ₹66.9 lakh crore as of December 2024, reflecting 25.3 per cent growth from March 2024.