India’s External Debt Rises By 8 Bn Dollar In H1
31 December, New Delhi
India’s external debt increased by 8 billion dollar at 483.2 billion dollar in the current fiscal to September, an increase of 1.7 per cent over March, due to rise in commercial borrowings and NRI deposits.
External debt at end-September 2015 stood at 483.2 billion dollar, recording an increase of 8 billion dollar (1.7 per cent) over the level at end-March 2015, said an official statement.
Rise in external debt during the period was due to long-term external debt particularly commercial borrowings and NRI deposits, it added.
However, on a sequential basis, total external debt at end-September 2015 declined by 291 million dollar from the end-June 2015 level.Long-term debt at end-September 2015 was placed at 397.1 billion dollar, showing an increase of 7.4 billion dollar (1.9 per cent) over the level at end-March 2015. Short-term external debt witnessed an increase of 0.7 per cent and stood at 86.1 billion dollar at end-September 2015.
At end-September 2015, long-term external debt accounted for 82.2 per cent of Indias total external debt, while the remaining (17.8 per cent) was short-term external debt. Component-wise, the share of commercial borrowings was highest at 37.7 per cent of total external debt, followed by NRI deposits at 25.2 per cent and multilateral debt at 11 per cent.
Sovereign external debt stood at 88.9 billion dollar at end-September 2015 while non-Government debt amounted to 394.3 billion dollar. The shares of sovereign and non-Government debt in the total external debt were 18.4 per cent and 81.6 per cent respectively, at end-September 2015. The share of US dollar denominated debt continued to be the highest in external debt stock at 57.7 per cent at end-September 2015, followed by the Indian rupee at 28.3 per cent, SDR at 5.8 per cent, Japanese yen at 4.0 per cent and euro at 2.4 per cent).
The ratio of concessional debt to total external debt was 8.7 per cent at end-September 2015 (8.8 per cent at end-March 2015).Indias foreign exchange reserves provided a cover of 72.5 per cent to the total external debt stock at end-September 2015 vis–vis 71.9 per cent at end-March 2015.
The ratio of short term external debt to foreign exchange reserves was 24.6 per cent at end-September 2015 as against 25.0 per cent at end-March 2015.