India's external debt up nearly 14 per cent at $297.5 billion in April-December 2010
31 Mar 2011
India's external debt stock stood at $297.5 billion as at end-December 2010, up $36.3 billion (or 13.9 per cent) from $261.2 billion at end-March 2010.
The country's long-term debt increased by $26 billion to $234.9 billion, an increase of 12.5 per cent while short-term debt rose $10.3 billion or 19.7 per cent to $62.6 billion, official data released today showed.
Of the total increase of $36.3 billion in India's external debt at end-December, the valuation effect arising from depreciation of the US dollar against major international currencies accounted for $5.3 billion (or 14.6 per cent). Excluding the valuation effect, the increase in external debt would have been $31.0 billion.
Short-term debt (original maturity) accounted for 21.0 per cent of India's total external debt while the remaining 79.0 per cent was long-term debt. Component-wise, the share of commercial borrowings stood highest at 28.5 per cent, followed by NRI deposits (17.0 per cent) and multilateral debt (16.0 per cent).
Government (sovereign) external debt stood at $74.5 billion, (25.0 per cent of total external debt) at end-December 2010 as against $67.1 billion (25.7 per cent) at end-March 2010.
The share of US dollar denominated debt was the highest in external debt stock at 53.7 per cent at end-December 2010, followed by the rupee debt (19.0 per cent), Japanese Yen (12.0 per cent), SDR (9.7 per cent) and Euro (3.5 per cent).
The country's external debt to GDP ratio and debt service ratios stood at 16.9 per cent and 3.9 per cent, respectively, at end-December 2010.
The ratio of short-term external debt to foreign exchange reserves was 21.1 per cent at end-December 2010 as compared to 18.8 per cent at end-March 2010.
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