(LiveMint)
A report by State Bank of India (SBI) has claimed that cash withdrawals rose sharply the second half of 2017-18. While withdrawals in the second halves of fiscal years have always been higher than the first, the SBI report said the increase in FY18 was unusual.
When we look at the data posted by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), some interesting patterns emerge in terms of cash withdrawals from ATMs. Firstly, if we look at the number of cash withdrawals from ATMs per month, we see that the number of withdrawals is still lower than what it used to be prior to demonetization in November 2016.
Instead, after demonetization, people are withdrawing larger amounts from each ATM visits. While it is hard to draw causality, this is most likely because of memories of shut ATMs and long lines in the period immediately following demonetization.
