India’s external debt up 5.8 % at over $365 bn at end-September 2012

India's total external debt stock stood at $365.3 billion at end-September 2012, recording an increase of about $20 billion (5.8 per cent) over the level at end-March 2012. The rise in external debt has largely been due to higher NRI deposits, short-term debt and commercial borrowings, official data released today showed.

Of this, long-term debt was $280.8 billion at end-September 2012, showing an increase of 5.1 per cent over the end-March 2012 level, while short-term debt increased by 8.1 per cent to $84.5 billion.

Short-term debt accounted for 23.1 per cent of India's total external debt, while the remaining (76.9 per cent) was long-term debt.

Component-wise, the share of commercial borrowings stood highest at 29.8 per cent, followed by NRI deposits (18.3 per cent) and multilateral debt (13.9 per cent).

Government (sovereign) external debt stood at $81.5 billion, (22.3 per cent of total external debt) at end-September 2012 vis-a-vis $81.9 billion (23.7 per cent) at end-March 2012.

The share of dollar denominated debt accounted for 55.7 per cent of India's total external debt stock at end-September 2012, followed by rupee debt (22.9 per cent), Japanese yen (8.6 per cent), SDR (8.1 per cent) and euro (3.2 per cent).