India's external debt rises to $376 billion

India's total external debt was $376.3 billion as of December end, up 8.9% 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%) over the level of $345.5 billion at end-March 2012," an official statement said today.

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% of total external borrowings, stood at $284.4 billion at end-December 2012, up 6.4% over March 2012.

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

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

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

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

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