India’s external debt increased to $390 billion this March end against $345.5 billion in the same period last year, a rise of 12.9%.
According to the external debt report released for 2012-13, country’s external debt continues to be dominated by the long-term borrowings. A rise in its external debt is mainly due to an increase in short-term debt, commercial borrowings and non-resident Indian deposits.
Based on the data released by the RBI in June, the long-term external debt stood at $ 293.4 billion, reflecting an increase of 9.8% over the previous year. While the short-term debt stood at $ 96.7 billion , an increase by 23.7% over the level of end March 2012. The long-term debt accounted for 75.2% of total external debt at end March 2013, indicating the dominance of long-term borrowings in total external debt.
Out of the total external debt, share of commercial borrowings stood at 31.0% at end March 2013, followed by short-term debt of 24.8%. NRI deposits contributed 18.2% and multilateral debt stood at 13.2% . Sovereign external debt declined to $ 81.7 billion at end March 2013 compared to $ 81.9 billion in end March 2012.