India’s April –September external debt up 1.7% at $483 billion

India's external debt at end-September 2015 stood at $483.2 billion, recording an increase of $8.0 billion (1.7 per cent) over the level at end-March 2015. The increase in external debt during the period is attributed to long-term external debt, particularly commercial borrowings and NRI deposits.

According to quarterly data released by the Department of Economic Affairs, the rise in the country's external debt during the period was due to long-term external debt, particularly commercial borrowings and NRI deposits.

However, on a sequential basis, total external debt at end-September 2015 declined by $291 million from the end-June 2015 level.

Long-term debt at end-September 2015 stood at $397.1 billion, showing an increase of $7.4 billion (1.9 per cent) over the level at end-March 2015. Short-term external debt witnessed an increase of 0.7 per cent and stood at $86.1 billion at end-September 2015.

At end-September 2015, long-term external debt accounted for 82.2 per cent of India's total external debt, while the remaining (17.8 per cent) was short-term external debt.

Component-wise, the share of commercial borrowings stood highest at 37.7 per cent of total external debt, followed by NRI deposits (25.2 per cent) and multilateral debt (11.0 per cent).

Government (sovereign) external debt stood at $88.9 billion at end-September 2015 while non-government debt amounted to $394.3 billion. The shares of government (sovereign) and non-government debt in the total external debt were 18.4 per cent and 81.6 per cent, respectively, at end-September 2015.

The share of US dollar-denominated debt continued to be the highest in external debt stock at 57.7 per cent at end-September 2015, followed by the Indian rupee (28.3 per cent), SDR (5.8 per cent), Japanese yen (4.0 per cent), and euro (2.4 per cent).

The ratio of concessional debt to total external debt was 8.7 per cent at end-September 2015 (8.8 per cent at end-March 2015).

India's foreign exchange reserves provided a cover of 72.5 per cent to the total external debt stock at end-September 2015 vis-à-vis 71.9 per cent at end-March 2015.

The ratio of short term external debt to foreign exchange reserves was 24.6 per cent at end-September 2015 as against 25.0 per cent at end-March 2015.