Total external debt goes up in first half of FY15

India's short-term debt declined by 3.2 per cent to $86.4 billion in the six months ended September, the first half or H1 in this financial year, from $89.2 billion at the end of March.

The ratio of short-term external debt to foreign exchange (forex) reserves was 27.5 per cent at end-September from 29.3 per cent at end-March.

India's forex reserves provided a cover of 68.9 per cent to the total external debt stock at end-September as against 68.8 per cent at end-March.

Long-term debt was $369.5 billion at end-September, a rise of 4.7 per cent over end-March.

At end-September, total external debt was $455.9 billion, a rise of $13.7 billion (3.1 per cent) over the level at end-March. The rise was primarily due to long-term external debt, particularly commercial borrowing and deposits of non-resident Indians (NRIs), the government stated.

Short-term debt accounted for 18.9 per cent of total external debt at end-September. The remaining 81.1 per cent was long-term debt.

Component-wise, the share of commercial borrowings was highest at 35.4 per cent of total external debt, followed by NRI deposits (23.8 per cent) and multilateral debt (11.7 per cent).

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has also issued the data on India's international investment position. It said net claims of non-residents on India rose by $6.8 billion to $353.7 billion as at end-September, from $346.9 billion in the quarter ended June.

This change reflected a $3.5 billion increase in the value of foreign-owned assets in India vis-à-vis a $3.3 billion decrease in the value of Indian residents' financial assets abroad, RBI said. The latter total was $488.5 billion as at end-September.

Foreign-owned assets in India grew $3.5 billion over the previous quarter to $842.1 billion, mainly due to a rise of $1.9 billion in direct investment in India and an increase of $0.9 billion in portfolio investment in India. Among other investment liabilities, currency and deposits increased by $2.5 billion and loans (mainly external commercial borrowing) decreased by $0.9 billion.