External debt down $5 bn

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| Of the total external debt, long-term debt fell $5.4 billion to $110.26 billion while short-term debt rose by $533 million to $8.9 billion. The external debt to GDP ratio has further dropped to 17.3 per cent as of March-end 2005, from 17.8 per cent in the previous year. |
| The proportion of short-term debt to total debt as well as the ratio of short-term debt to foreign current assets rose to 7.5 per cent and 6.8 per cent respectively in December 2005. Multilateral debt increased by $370 million to $31.79 billion as compared to $31.42 billion in the previous quarter. |
| However, this was offset by a decline in bilateral credits by $322 million, which stood at $15.55 billion. Export credit outstanding at $5.16 billion showed no significant change during October-December 2005 quarter. |
| ECBs stood at $22.43 billion, lower by $5.88 billion. |
First Published: Apr 01 2006 | 12:00 AM IST