Growth rate in UPI transactions slowed in January on y-o-y basis, shows RBI data

In December 2022, UPI touched its highest-ever mark with 782 crore transactions worth Rs 12.8 lakh crore, according to the Economic Survey.

Transactions growth rate through United payment interface (UPI) slowed on a year-on-year basis in January 2023, according to the monthly Bulletin released by the central bank.

The growth rate of UPI's transaction volume slowed to 74.1 percent in January 2023 compared with 100.5 percent in the year-ago period. Similarly, the transaction value of UPI for January 2023 recorded a growth rate of 56.1 percent while it stood at 93 percent last year.

The change in the decrease of transaction volume growth goes as -26.26 percent while for the value it is -39.6 percent.

India-bound travellers to be allowed to use UPI.

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has proposed to extend Unified Payments Interface (UPI) for merchant payments for travellers coming from abroad, said RBI Governor Shaktikanta Das while making Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) announcements on February 8.

The governor said that, to begin with, this service will be permitted to travellers from G20 countries arriving at select international airports.

On February 7, PhonePe became India's first fintech platform to support international payments, allowing Indians travelling abroad to pay foreign merchants using UPI.

The transactions would work just as they would with an international debit card, and the foreign currency will be deducted from the user’s bank account.

UPI accounted for 52% of India's total digital transactions in FY22

In FY22, UPI accounted for 52 percent of the total 8,840 crore financial digital transactions with a total value of Rs 126 lakh crore, the government noted in its pre-Budget Economic Survey. In FY19 (2018-19), UPI accounted only for about 17 percent of the country's total 3,100 crore digital transactions, the Economic Survey noted.

On average, between FY19-22 (calendar year), UPI transactions grew 121 percent in terms of value and 115 percent in terms of volume, the survey noted. In December 2022, UPI touched its highest-ever mark with 782 crore transactions worth Rs 12.8 lakh crore, according to the Economic Survey.