Centre Mulls Sovereign Bond For External Debt

The Centre is considering floating a sovereign bond and switching existing multilateral loans to the international market at lower interest rates as possible options for prepaying the high-cost external debt of the country.

The status paper on external debt issued by the finance ministry says the total amount might rise by $6.9 billion because the non-resident, non-repatriable rupee deposit will be merged with other non-resident accounts as promised in the Budget this year.

On the issue of pre-paying external debt, the report quotes the