India's External Debt Rises to $376 Bn, NRI Deposits Among Factors

New Delhi: India's total external debt was $376.3 billion as of December end, up 8.9 per cent from March, on account of long-term and short-term components.

"At end-December 2012, India's total external debt stock stood at $376.3 billion, reflecting an increase of $30.8 billion (8.9 per cent) over the level of $345.5 billion at end-March 2012," an official statement said.

Increase in long-term debt was mainly on account of NRI deposits and commercial borrowings, while short-term debt stood higher on account of trade related credits, it said.

Long-term debt, which accounted for 75.6 per cent of total external borrowings, stood at $284.4 billion at end-December 2012, up 6.4 per cent over March 2012.

Within long-term, commercial borrowings accounted for 30 per cent of total external debt, followed by NRI deposits at 18 per cent and multilateral debt at 13.7 per cent.

Short-term debt, comprising 24.4 per cent of the external debt, increased by 17.5 per cent from end-March to $91.9 billion as of December 31, 2012.

Also, external-debt to GDP ratio stood at 20.6 per cent as of December 31, 2012 versus 19.7 per cent as of March 31, 2012.

Debt denominated in US dollars was the highest in external debt stock at 56.8 per cent as of December 2012, followed by Indian rupee (23.1 per cent), SDR (7.9 per cent), Japanese yen (7.6 per cent) and euro (3.2 per cent), it added.

Also, government (sovereign) external debt stood at $81.7 billion, (21.7 per cent of total external debt) at end-December 2012 as against $81.9 billion (23.7 per cent) at end-March 2012.

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