India’s external debt up $13.7 bn at $455.9 bin in April-September

India's total external debt stood at $455.9 billion at the end of September 2014, a rise of $13.7 billion (3.1 per cent) over the end-March level. The rise was primarily due to long-term external debt, particularly commercial borrowings and deposits of non-resident Indians (NRIs), the government stated.

Long-term debt stood at $369.5 billion as of end-September 2014, showing an increase of 4.7 per cent over the end-March 2014 level, while short-term debt declined by 3.2 per cent to $86.4 billion.

Short-term debt accounted for 18.9 per cent of total external debt at end-September. The remaining 81.1 per cent was long-term debt, the release stated.

Component-wise, the share of commercial borrowings stood highest at 35.4 per cent of total external debt, followed by NRI deposits (23.8 per cent) and multilateral debt (11.7 per cent).

Government (sovereign) external debt stood at $88.4 billion, (19.4 per cent of total external debt) as at end-September 2014 vis-a-vis $81.5 billion (18.4 per cent) at end-March 2014.

The share of US dollar denominated debt continued to be the highest in external debt stock at 60.1 per cent at end-September 2014, followed by the Indian rupee (24.2 per cent), SDR (6.5 per cent), Japanese yen (4.5 per cent), and euro (3.0 per cent).

The ratio of concessional debt to total external debt was 9.8 per cent at end-September 2014, compared to 10.5 per cent at end-March 2014.

India's foreign exchange reserves provided cover for 68.9 per cent of the total external debt stock at end-September 2014 vis-à-vis 68.8 per cent at end-March 2014.

The ratio of short-term external debt to foreign exchange reserves was at 27.5 per cent at end-September 2014 as against 29.3 per cent at end-March 2014.