This article says "Liquidity in the financial system is currently at a deficit of around Rs 1.4 lakh crore, "
What do they mean by saying "deficit in liquidity" ?? How is it calculated ??
Liquidity is a measure of the ability and ease with which assets can be converted to cash i.e ability of financial institutions to raise cash easily either by selling "
liquid" assets or simply borrowing from the markets.
"Deficit" means that there are people who are willing to sell liquid assets but not able to do so due to lack of buyers or it means people want to borrow money from the market but are unable to find lenders or a combination of both. Banks, for example routinely borrow cash from each other to fulfil their own obligations such as withdrawal by customer etc. In simple words,
Cash is needed but not available. In India, all Banks are required to maintain a certain amount of liquidity to fulfil their obligations due to Basal III norms and therefore cannot over lend as they have to maintain a certain liquidity coverage to protect themselves on bad days. .
Fyi, Cash/bank deposit is a highly liquid asset and so is rated government debt. Im unaware of the exact math behind the calculation. But, I would assume its mostly driven by demand/supply.