India external debt at $554.5 bn by June-end, down $3.9 bn from March: RBI

India's external debt stood at $554.5 billion at end-June, recording a decrease of $3.9 billion over its level at the end of March 2020, the RBI said on Wednesday.

Further, the external debt to GDP ratio increased to 21.8 per cent at June-end 2020 from 20.6 per cent as on March 31.

Valuation loss due to the depreciation of the US dollar vis-a-vis major currencies such as euro, yen and SDR was at $0.7 billion.

"Excluding the valuation effect, the decrease in external debt would have been $4.5 billion instead of $3.9 billion at end-June 2020 over end-March 2020," the central bank said.

As per the data, commercial borrowings remained the largest component of external debt, with a share of 38.1 per cent, followed by non-resident deposits (23.9 per cent) and short-term trade credit (18.2 per cent).

As on June 30, long-term debt (with original maturity of above one year) was placed at USD 449.5 billion, recording a decrease of $2 billion over its level at March-end, the central bank said.

The share of short-term debt in total external debt declined to 18.9 per cent as on June 30 from 19.1 per cent at end-March.

The Reserve Bank said the US dollar denominated debt remained the largest component of India's external debt, with a share of 53.9 per cent at end-June followed by the Indian rupee (31.6 per cent), yen (5.7 per cent), SDR (4.5 per cent) and the euro (3.5 per cent).

The instrument-wise classification shows that the loans were the largest component of external debt, with a share of 35.4 per cent, followed by currency and deposits, trade credit and advances and debt securities.

Further, the borrower-wise classification shows that the outstanding debt of both government and non-government sectors decreased at end-June 2020.

RBI also said debt service (principal repayments plus interest payments) increased to 8.1 per cent of current receipts at end-June 2020 as compared with 6.5 per cent at end-March 2020, reflecting lower current receipts.