India’s external debt up 12.9% at $390 billion at end-March 2013

The level of India's external debt is on a rising trend reaching $390 billion at the end of March 2013, up 12.9 per cent from $345.5 billion at the end of March 2012, with an increase in the level of current account deficit and overall external financing requirements.

With rising debt flows, deceleration in GDP growth and depreciating rupee, key external debt indicators witnessed some deterioration as of end-March 2013 compared to end-March 2012, official data showed.

However, debt service ratio, which is the proportion of total debt service payments to current receipts of balance of payments, has come down to 5.9 per cent from 6.0 per cent at end-March 2013, showing some improvement over end-March 2012.

India's external debt has remained within manageable limits as indicated by external debt-GDP ratio of 21.2 per cent during 2012-13, according to an official release.

India's external debt stock stood at $390 billion at end-March 2013, increasing by 12.9 per cent over the end-March 2012 level of $345.5 billion. The rise has been mainly due to increase in short-term debt, commercial borrowings and non-resident Indian deposits, official figures released today showed.

Long-term external debt at $293.4 billion at end-March 2013 showed an increase of 9.8 per cent, while the short-term debt at $96.7 billion increased by 23.7 per cent over the level of end-March 2012.

Long-term debt accounted for 75.2 per cent of total external debt at end-March 2013, indicating the dominance of long-term borrowings in total external debt.

The share of commercial borrowings in total external debt stock stood at 31 per cent at end-March 2013, followed by short-term debt (24.8 per cent), NRI deposits (18.2 per cent) and multilateral debt (13.2 per cent).

Government (sovereign) external debt stood at $81.7 billion at end-March 2013 vis-a-vis $81.9 billion at end-March 2012.

The share of government external debt in total external debt was lower at 20.9 per cent at end-March 2013 compared to 23.7 per cent at end-March 2012.