While they stood at around 50% of GDP until the 1970s, they rose to 300% by 2000, and to 550% by 2007. While part of this development is a natural consequence of being an international financial centre, it is difficult to justify such a dramatic expansion merely on the grounds of the rising importance of finance as a tool to fuel growth.
While full saving estimates for 2011–12 are not available, preliminary estimates suggest that household financial saving has plummeted to 7.8 per cent of GDP in 2011–12 from an already low of 9.3 per cent in 2010–11 as compared with an average of 11.6 per cent in the high growth phase.