India's external debt up $3.7 billion at $227.7 billion in April-June 2009

India's external debt rose $3.7 billion (or 1.7 per cent) to $227.7 billion at end-June 2009 from the end-March 2009 level of $224.0 billion, due mainly to an increase in long-term external debt, particularly non-resident Indian (NRI) deposits, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) said in a release.

The external debt outstanding at end-June 2009 was up $3.4 billion (or 1.5 per cent) from the end-June 2008 level.
 
The increase in India's external debt has mainly been due to a depreciation of the US dollar against other major international currencies and the Indian rupee during the first quarter of the financial year 2009-10, which resulted in an increase in the external debt by $5.0 billion from the end-March 2009 level, the release said.

But for the valuation effect, the stock of external debt as of end-June 2009 would have declined by $1.3 billion over the end-March 2009 level, the release noted.

The share of commercial borrowings continued to have the highest share in the country's external debt at 27.7 per cent, followed by NRI deposits (19.6 per cent), multilateral debt (18.1 per cent), short-term debt (17.8 per cent) and bilateral debt (9.4 per cent) as at end-June 2009.

The long-term debt at $187.1 billion and short-term debt at $40.6 billion accounted for 82.2 per cent and 17.8 per cent, respectively, of the total external debt as of end-June 2009.

The increase in long-term debt by $6.7 billion as of end-June 2009 was mainly due to the increase in NRI deposits, the release noted.