Debt Servicing Ability

India's external debt of USD 624.7 billion at March-end 2023 with a debt-service ratio of 5.3 per cent is within the comfort zone and modest from a cross-country perspective, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman has said. In her foreword to 'India's External Debt: A Status Report 2022-23' released earlier this month, Sitharaman said the ratio of external debt to GDP declined to 18.9 per cent at March-end 2022-23 from 20 per cent a year ago. The long-term debt constituted 79.4 per cent of total external debt, while short-term debt, which is 20.6 per cent of the total external borrowing, is basically incurred to finance imports, enhancing the stability aspects of the total external debt, she said. "From a cross-country perspective, India's external debt position is better than most of the Low and Middle-Income Countries (LMICs) as measured by select vulnerability indicators, such as share of short-term debt in total external debt, external debt to GNI (Gross National Income), forex ...

report has found that a third of corporate India has seen their debt servicing ability hit in the June quarter of current fiscal, massively up from 22 per cent in previous three months ending March

The G20 Debt Service Suspension Initiative (DSSI) has already helped countries defer some $5.7 billion in payments through the end of 2020

Says some able borrowers are using it to deliberately delay payments

Reputed conglomerates are opting for moratorium on debt servicing

The ICR for 1,056 firms (ex-financials, energy & IT services) improved to 4.4 during the April-December 2017 period