The outward remittances under Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI’s) Liberalised Remittance Scheme (LRS) declined 10.9 per cent year-on-year (Y-o-Y) in July 2025 at $2.45 billion.
Analysis of the various purposes of remittances showed that decline in international travel spends and payments for overseas education primarily led to the total decline as investment in equity, deposits, and purchase of property all saw a rise on a year-on-year basis.
According to RBI data released on Wednesday, the amount remitted under LRS towards travel was $1.4 billion in July 2025, down from $1.6 billion in the same month last year, representing a 13 per cent decline.
The amount spent for studies abroad was $0.22 billion, a 16 per cent fall from 0.27 billion last year. This comes at a time when July/August/September typically see a spike in remittances under this category, given the academic season in the Western countries.
Overall, total outward remittances in April-July 2025 are at $6.9 billion, a 28 per cent decline from the amount remitted during April-July 2024. Similarly, travel and education related remittances are down 29 per cent and 44 per cent for the same 4-month period.
While the rupee has depreciated during the period, putting the dollar value of remittances at a lower level, other indicators for travel and education also signal a slow down in both parameters.
Further, businessline’s analysis of the trends in all the July remittances from 2019 onwards showed that this is the first time since Covid (July 2020) that total outward LRS remittances saw a decline. It is the same in case of travel remittances, which have recorded YoY growth in all July months from 2021 onwards. The scenario is a bit different for education remittances, which have shown mixed trends.
The Liberalised Remittance Scheme (LRS) allows resident individuals to remit up to $250,000 per financial year for permissible transactions like education, travel, and investments abroad.
Published on September 25, 2025
