Currency in circulation hits record ₹40 lakh crore even as UPI grows: Report

Currency in circulation (CiC) in India reached an all‑time high of about ₹40 lakh crore by January 2026 end, with year‑on‑year growth accelerating to 11.1% from 5.3% last year, a report said on Monday. 

The report from SBI Research said on an incremental basis (YTD), the currency with public (CWP), accounting for 97.6% of the circulated currency, reached an all time high of around ₹39 lakh crore. Meanwhile, CiC surged ₹2.76 lakh crore or 3.11 times in the same period.

At current trends, currency with the public is likely to surpass the post‑pandemic FY21 incremental growth of ₹4.6 lakh crore, the report further said.

The report highlighted that "UPI transactions value is much higher than the currency circulation in India". One‑month UPI transaction value stood at about ₹28 lakh crore, roughly 70% of the economy’s total currency stock, underscoring that digital payments volumes remain large relative to cash.

The cash‑to‑GDP ratio has declined to 11% in FY26 from 14.4% in FY21.

"The direction of change of currency and GDP may be the same, but incremental GDP growth is now being financed less by cash and more through UPI," the report said.

Reserve money growth declined to 5.8%, due to the CRR cut which reduced the ‘Bankers Deposits with RBI’ component by ₹1.86 lakh crore in the current fiscal year.

Another recent report from SBI Research said that deposits and advances in banks almost tripled from FY15 to FY25, signalling deepening of the banking system and renewed credit intermediation.

Deposits rose from ₹85.3 lakh crore to ₹241.5 lakh crore and advances climbed from ₹67.4 lakh crore to ₹191.2 lakh crore during FY15–FY25.

The bank asset growth rebounded from 77% of GDP to 94% by FY25, reflecting renewed financial deepening, the report said.

(This story was taken from syndicated feed and was only edited for style by Gujarat Samachar Digital team)