Total external debt of the country stood at $222.61 billion  as of end-September this year, marginally lower than the level of $223.81 billion as of end-June 2008.

Of this, long term external debt constituted around 77.5 per cent at $172.51 billion (down $2.69 billion in the second quarter). The quarter also witnessed a moderation in NRI deposits and commercial borrowings. However, export credit increased in the period.

Short term debt, which includes trade related credits, FII investments in government securities and external liabilities of the banking systems increased over the second quarter of 2008-09 by $1.49 billion to $50.10 billion.

The share of private debt in total external debt has increased over a period of time, which continued during the quarter ended September 2008 as well.

Private debt accounted for $166.03 billion (74.6 per cent) and government debt amounted to $56.58 billion (25.4 per cent) of total external debt as of end-September 2008.

Based on residual maturity, total long term external debt stood at $130.69 billion (58.7 per cent) and short-term debt at $91.92 billion (41.3 per cent) as of end-September 2008.

During the quarter, the coverage of the country's short-term external debt has been revised to include (i) Nostro/Vostro liabilities of the banking sector, (ii) balances under non-resident rupee accounts maintained by foreign central banks/international institutions with Reserve Bank of India, and (iii) foreign central banks/international institutions' investment in securities/treasury bills maintained with Reserve Bank of India, the release said.

The currency composition of external debt reveals that US dollar denominated debt accounted for 56.9 per cent followed by rupee (16.4 per cent), Japanese yen (11.6 per cent), SDR (9.6 per cent) and Euro (3.4 per cent) and others (2.1 per cent).

The ratio of foreign exchange reserves to total external debt as of end-September 2008 stood at 128.6 per cent.

As per the information relating to countries whose external debt data are reported in the Quarterly External Debt Statistics (QEDS) of the World Bank, India has the lowest level of external debt to GDP ratio, the release pointed out.