Second highest in India; Kerala's non-resident deposits cross three trillion mark

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has reported that non-resident deposits in banks in Kerala have crossed three lakh crore rupees. It was Rs 2.86 lakh crore last December. The state budget presented by Minister K.N. Balagopal in 2025 is two lakh crore rupees. Kerala is in second place in non-resident deposits in the country, followed by Maharashtra.

The depreciation of the rupee against the dollar and immigration to countries like Europe, America, Australia, and New Zealand have increased NRI investment. After Covid, the trend of keeping money in the country has increased.

One-third of the NRI investment in India comes from the US. 27.7 percent of the NRI account is from the US. The UAE is next at 19.2 percent. 37.9 percent of NRI investment comes from countries like Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Kuwait, Oman, and Bahrain. Half of this is from Malayalis.

There has been a huge increase in expatriate Malayali investment from Canada, the UK and the US. This is likely to increase, according to a study report by the International Institute of Migration and Development in Pune.

Malayalis in 182 countries

There are Malayalis in 182 of the 193 countries in the world. This is the figure of NORKA. More Malayalis are among the expatriates in the Gulf. There are 4.2 lakh Malayalis in countries like UAE, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Bahrain, Oman, and Kuwait. There are 35.6 lakh expatriate Malayalis. There are 3.452 crore expatriates from India.

11.8 lakh crore rupees deposits

• NRI deposits in the country- 11.8 lakh crore

• Marathi deposits- 35.2%

• Malayali deposits- 19.7%

• Malayali NRI bank deposits in 2014- 1 lakh crore

• Malayali NRI bank deposits in 2020- 2 lakh crore

• Annual growth till 2020- 9%

• Annual growth since 2021- 20%