India’s external debt slightly lower at $400 billion at end-September 2013

India's total external debt stock stood at $400.3 billion at the end of September 2013, recording a decline of $9 million over the end-March 2013 level, official data released today showed.

Of this, $305.5 billion was long-term debt, which showed an increase of 0.6 per cent over the end-March 2013 level, while short-term debt declined by 2.0 per cent to $94.8 billion.

Short-term debt accounted for 23.7 per cent of India's total external debt, while the remaining (76.3 per cent) was long-term debt.

Component-wise, the share of commercial borrowings stood highest at 32.3 per cent of total external debt, followed by NRI deposits (18.8 per cent) and multilateral debt (13.1 per cent).

Government (sovereign) external debt stood at $77.3 billion, (19.3 per cent of total external debt) at end-September 2013 vis-a-vis $81.7 billion (20.4 per cent) at end-March 2013.

The share of US dollar denominated debt continued to be the highest in external debt stock at 60.7 per cent at end-September 2013, followed by debt denominated in rupee (20.9 per cent), SDR (7.6 per cent), Japanese yen (5.7 per cent), and euro (3.2 per cent).

The ratio of concessional debt to total external debt was 11.5 per cent at end-September 2013 compared to 11.4 per cent at end-March 2013.

India's foreign exchange reserves provided a cover of 69.3 per cent to the total external debt stock at end-September 2013 vis-à-vis 73.0 per cent at end-March 2013.  

The ratio of short-term external debt to foreign exchange reserves increased to 34.2 per cent at end-September 2013 from 33.1 per cent at end-March 2013.