India's per capita retirement & pension assets lowest in world

 India's per capita retirement and pension assets as a percentage of GDP is among the lowest in the world, according to survey report by Reliance Capital Asset Management.

India has 15.1 per cent of retirement assets as a percentage of GDP, when compared to 21 per cent in Germany, 41 per cent in Brazil, 78.9 per cent in USA and 146 per cent in Australia, the first retirement survey by RCAM, which is a part of Reliance Capital, said today.

The survey was conducted online pan-India in collaboration with IMRB International.
"India is a young country with the median age of its population under 30 years. We have around 100 million people today above the age of 60 years, which is expected to triple to 300 million by 2050.

"This will pose a huge economic challenge for the country if we do not plan for providing right retirement options today," RCAM Deputy Chief Executive Officer Himanshu Vyapak said in a statement.

"With this study, we have made an attempt to understand the mindset of the consumer towards retirement planning," he said.

"India's per capita retirement and pension assets as a percentage of GDP are amongst the lowest in the world," he added.

The online survey reveals that retirement planning is the most important financial goal for respondents, ahead of other goals, including buying a house, education of children and marriage. The retirement planning goal is the most important for the 30-40 and 41-55 age groups.

The most important reason for consumers to buy a retirement plan are "enjoying retired life" and "taking care of family".

States like UP have expressed greater concern towards rising costs on account of inflation and would like their retirement returns to beat inflation, the study said.

The survey reveals that majority of the respondents prefer to invest in retirement plans between the ages of 30-40 years.

More than 60 per cent of the respondents said they would like to start saving for retirement before they reach 40.