India's External Debt rises to US$ 483.2 billion at end-September 2015

Long-term external debt rises driven by commercial borrowings and NRI deposits

At end-September 2015, India's external debt stock stood at US$ 483.2 billion, recording an increase of US$ 8.0 billion (1.7%) over the level at end-March 2015. The rise in 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 US$ 291 million from the end-June 2015 level.

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

At end-September 2015, long-term external debt accounted for 82.2% of India's total external debt, while the remaining (17.8%) was short-term external debt. Component-wise, the share of commercial borrowings stood highest at 37.7% of total external debt, followed by NRI deposits (25.2%) and multilateral debt (11.0%).

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

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

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

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

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

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