76% Of Rs 2,000 Notes In Circulation Have Been Returned, Says RBI

Of the Rs 3.56 lakh crore worth of Rs 2,000 notes in circulation in May, 76% have been returned by the public, according to the Reserve Bank of India.

On May 19, the RBI announced the withdrawal of Rs 2,000 notes from circulation and asked the public to either deposit or exchange them by Sept. 30. A total of Rs 3.56 lakh crore worth of Rs 2,000 notes were in circulation as of May 19.

The total amount of Rs 2,000 notes in circulation as of June 30 stood at Rs 84,000 crore. Data collected from banks indicates that about 87% of the notes returned have been deposited, while the remaining 13% were exchanged for other denominations, according to a notification by the RBI issued on Monday.

People can deposit or return Rs 2,000 notes at banks till Sept. 30, following which they may need to visit the RBI's regional offices to swap them.

On June 8, while announcing the last monetary policy decision, RBI Governor Shaktikanta Das had stated that nearly half of the outstanding Rs 2,000 currency notes had returned to the banking system.

About 85% of Rs 2,000 notes are coming as deposits in bank accounts and this is in line with expectation, he had said.

Fuel, jewellery and daily groceries were the top three preferred items for people to offload their Rs 2,000 currency notes, according to a survey by location-based social network Public App.

In a report last month, SBI Ecowrap noted that the withdrawal of Rs 2,000 currency notes from circulation could result in pushing India's gross domestic product growth beyond the estimated 6.5%.

"We expect Q1 FY24 GDP growth at 8.1% with an upward bias due to the impact of the Rs 2000 note withdrawal event...this reinforces our projection that FY24 GDP could be higher than 6.5%, based on the RBI estimate," the note said.