India's external liabilities rose by $22.7 billion in the quarter ending December 2010, over the previous three months, to $628 billion, mainly on account of increase in portfolio investment, FDI and debts. The country's increase in external liabilities rose to $628.6 billion as on December 31 from $605.9 billion at the end of September, says the data released by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI). The data further showed that the direct investment into the country during the quarter ending December 2010 went up by $6.2 billion to $198 billion. Portfolio investments during the same period grew by $7.6 billion to $171.7 billion over the previous quarter. Liabilities in the nature of trade credits, loans and currency and deposits during the quarter increased by $9 billion to $258.9 billion due to availability of overseas funds at substantially lower interest rates than in domestic markets. Loans to Indian companies went up by $5.5 billion or 4 per cent during the quarter ended December to $140.1 billion. During the October-December period, currency and deposits liabilities grew marginally to $51.4 billion. India's outbound investments also grew by $4.6 billion over the previous quarter to $407.5 billion in the October-December. With this, the net claims of foreigners and NRIs on India rose to $221.1 billion during October-December 2010, up by $18.2 billion or 9 per cent from the previous quarter.

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