Mumbai: The Reserve Bank of India has said that India''s external debt has is now at $123.3 billion, up $11.6 billion from $111.7 billion in March 2004.

The 10.4 per cent rise was the highest accretion in any single year since 1990-91, said a RBI release here on Thursday. The US dollar continued to dominate the currency composition of India''s external debt at 45 per cent. The rupee followed at 19 per cent, SDRs (16 per cent), Japanese yen (11 per cent) and euro (5 per cent).

ECBs, short-term and long-term trade credits, multilateral debt and NRI deposits were the key drivers to the growth in the external debt stock.

While ECBs have risen to $26.9 billion from $22.1 billion last year, bilateral debt fell marginally at $17.2 billion from $17.3 billion. Rupee debt fell to $2.3 billion from $2.7 billion. ECBs mainly took the form of syndicated loans and issues of bonds including foreign currency convertible bonds.

NRI deposits also showed a rise to $32.6 billion in 2004-05 from $31.2 billion.

Short-term debt recorded the highest growth of 69.8 per cent during the year, a reflection of a sharp rise in POL and non-POL imports. It increased from $4.43 billion to $7.52 billion.

There was a prepayment of debt amounting to $35.1 million during the year as compared $3.8 billion in the previous fiscal. The ratio of short term to total debt posted a rise - from 4 per cent last year to 6.1 per cent in 2004-05.