The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) in its recent report said that the people of Andhra Pradesh love to invest in gold and real estate compared to other instruments such as mutual funds and fixed deposits. The Household Finance Committee Report of RBI shows that families in Andhra Pradesh are more inclined towards investing in gold and real estate than parking their money in mutual funds and fixed deposits. AP has the highest percentage of unsecured debt in the country.
The report also said that non-life insurance schemes are not very popular in AP. It also opines that in states such as Tamil Nadu, families store huge part of wealth in gold and most of their debt also in the form of gold loans.
Andhra Pradesh is in second place in the country after Tamil Nadu, in terms of buying gold. Huge gold holdings also suggests that strong cultural factors may also be at play in these states. Though Kerala has highest per capita income, Tamil Nadu and AP have beaten Kerala with respect to gold holdings.
The RBI statistics says that Keralites spend 13.1 percent of their income on gold. It is 21.6 percent in AP and 28.3 percent in Tamilnadu.
The data also indicated that the people get richer, they start investing in real estate. Most families in AP do not like to invest in other financial assets or retirement schemes. The families in AP have 61 percent of thier investments in real estate sector only.