Narendra Modi, India’s prime minister, declared in an unscheduled national broadcast last year that all Rs500 and 100 notes would cease to be legal tender. This would leave those who had hoarded piles of illicit money from corruption and tax evasion with “worthless pieces of paper”.
Less than a year later, a central bank report suggests the policy has not been very effective. It estimates that almost 99 per cent of the high value notes, which at the time of the announcement made up 86 per cent of all the cash in circulation in India, were deposited or exchanged for new notes.
Instead of flushing out the black money, the Modi government may have inadvertently helped wash the funds clean.