Banking Sector Liberalization in India

India has over the last decades experienced different degrees of repressive policies in the banking sector. This paper focuses on the changing intensity of three policies that are commonly associated with financial repression, namely interest rate controls, statutory pre-emptions and directed credit as well as the effects these policies had. The main findings are that the degree of financial repression has steadily increased between 1960 and 1980, then declined somewhat before rising to a new peak at the end of the 1980s. Since the start of the overall economic reforms in 1991, the level of financial repression has steadily declined. Despite the high degree of financial repression, no statistically significant negative effects on savings, capital formation and financial development could be established, which is contrary to the predictions of the financial liberalization hypothesis.