Survey shows Bengaluru second worst-affected Indian city to experience income loss due to pandemic

Bengaluru: Delhi-NCR, Bengaluru and Mumbai were the worst-affected cities in terms of loss of income and loan repayment capacity due to Covid-19, according to a consumer insights report by Paisabazaar.com, India's largest digital marketplace for lending products.
The survey showed Bangalore was the second most affected city among the top six metros, while Chennai was the least affected, according to a press release from Paisabazaar.

Over 8500 consumers of Paisabazaar between the age of 24 to 57 years from 35+ cities with a debt of Rs 1 lakh or more took part in the survey -- ‘Dealing with Debt: How India plans to pay EMIs.’

Over 86% of the self-employed customers reported a loss in income due to Covid-led restrictions. More than a fourth of self-employed customers said their income had come to nil due to the pandemic and the lockdown. There was a lesser but still significant impact on salaried customers. 56% of salary earners said their salary has been impacted due to the pandemic and the resultant restrictions; 12% said they have lost their job and have no income source currently, according to the survey.

“While there was widespread impact on consumers in the first 2-3 of months of the pandemic, we believe there has been steady recovery since July. With the economy beginning to get back to its feet, incomes of customer segments employed in deeply affected industries like travel, aviation, entertainment, hospitality etc. should start getting restored gradually. Large lenders including banks should also grow in confidence in willing to lend to these segments. However, supply of loans to self-employed and low-income segments would take longer to recover,” said Naveen Kukreja, CEO & Co-founder, Paisabazaar.com.

In Bengaluru, over 65% of residents who participated in the survey said they faced an adverse effect on income due to the pandemic, of which, 12% lost their income completely.

Around 90% of self-employed Bengaluru residents and 61% of the salaried segment from the city suffered income loss, the survey revealed.