India’s external debt stood at $455.9 billion in the first six months of this fiscal, up 3.1 per cent from March—end level, according to the Finance Ministry.
The external debt consist of long—term debt of $369.5 billion (up 4.7 per cent from March) and short—term debt $86.4 billion (down 3.2 per cent).
“The rise in external debt (of $13.7 billion or 3.1 per cent from March—end level) during the period was due to long—term external debt particularly commercial borrowings and NRI deposits,” the Finance Ministry said in a release today.
Share of commercial borrowings was highest at 35.4 per cent of total external debt, followed by NRI deposits at 23.8 per cent and multilateral debt at 11.7 per cent.
Sovereign external debt stood at $88.4 billion in September, up from $81.5 billion in March 2014, it added.
“The share of US dollar denominated debt continued to be the highest in external debt stock at 60.1 per cent at end—September 2014, followed by the Indian rupee 24.2 per cent, Special Drawing Rights (SDR) 6.5 per cent, Japanese yen 4.5 per cent, and euro 3 per cent,” said the release.