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Outflows towards investment in equity and debt led the outward remittance in August and are now a much bigger part of the LRS basket compared to last year, RBI data released on Friday show.
Outward remittances by Indians under the Liberalised Remittance Scheme (LRS) reached $2738.58 million in August 2026, a 3.6 per cent growth YoY and 6 per cent up from July, as per the RBI bulletin released on Friday.
Remittances for investment in overseas equity and debt more than doubled, rising 111 per cent from $152.18 million in August 2025 to $321.53 million. However, on a month-on-month basis, the total outflow in this category posted a 7 per cent decline.
Investment in equity and debt abroad hit an all-time high of $460 million in June. In August 2026, the category accounted for about 11.7 per cent of total LRS outflows in August 2026, up from 5.8 per cent a year earlier.
Analysts note that beyond foreign equity markets, there has also been an increased appetite for dollar-linked fixed income investments given the depreciation of the rupee.
Excluding the outflow due to investment in equity/debt, the LRS remittances would have declined about 3% year on year.
Travel category
Travel, another major category under the LRS, was flat YoY but strong MoM.
Travel accounted for $1630.26 million, or roughly 59.5 per cent of the total in August 2026. This grew by just about 1 per cent from a year ago but climbed 11.4% from July’s $1463.11 million. On a month-on-month basis, business travel zoomed by almost 5x from $10.9 million in July to $51 million in August.
Among the other smaller heads, remittance towards deposits rose 18.8 per cent year-on-year to $50.78 million and gifts abroad also grew 13.3 per cent to $215.72 million.
Remittances for medical treatment were up 21.3 per cent year on year at $4.84 million, and people spent 1.2 per cent higher towards maintenance of relatives abroad at $275.43 million.
Published on October 23, 2026
English (US) ·