As per the standard practice, India's external debt statistics for the quarters ending March and June are released by the Reserve Bank of India with a lag of one quarter and those for the quarters ending September and December by the Ministry of Finance, Government of India. The external debt data as at end-June 2015 in rupees and US dollars as well as revised data for earlier quarters are set out in Statements 1 and 2, respectively. The major developments relating to India’s external debt as at end-June 2015 are presented below.

Highlights

India’s external debt at end-June 2015 witnessed an increase of 1.8 per cent over its level at end-March 2015, primarily on account of a rise in outstanding NRI deposits and commercial borrowings. Furthermore, the increase in the magnitude of external debt was partly offset by the valuation gains resulting from the appreciation of the US dollar vis-a-vis the Indian rupee and other major currencies. The external debt/GDP ratio stood at 24.0 per cent at end-June 2015, recording an increase over its level of 23.7 per cent at end-March 2015.

Major highlights pertaining to India’s external debt as at end-June 2015 are presented below:

• India’s external debt at end-June 2015 was placed at US$ 482.9 billion recording an increase of US$ 8.5 billion over its level at end-March 2015 (Table 1).

• Excluding valuation gains due to appreciation of the US dollar against the Indian rupee and other major currencies, the increase in external debt during the quarter would have been higher at US$ 10.1 billion.

• Commercial borrowings continued to be the largest component of external debt with a share of 38.4 per cent, followed by NRI deposits (24.8 per cent) and short-term trade credit (16.6 per cent).

• The share of short-term debt (original maturity) in total debt witnessed a decline over the preceding quarter as well as over the corresponding quarter of the previous year as FII investment in Government treasury bills was phased out.

• Accordingly, the ratio of short-term debt (original maturity) to foreign exchange reserves declined to 23.7 per cent as at end-June 2015 (24.8 per cent as at end-March 2015). Similarly, on residual maturity basis, the ratio of short-term debt to foreign exchange reserves worked out to 51.9 per cent at end-June 2015 (54.2 per cent at end-March 2015) (Table 2).

• The US dollar denominated debt continued to be the largest component of India’s external debt with a share of 58.1 per cent at end-June 2015, followed by Indian rupee (28.4 per cent), SDR (5.9 per cent), Japanese Yen (3.9 per cent) and Euro (2.3 per cent).

• Across borrower categories, the outstanding debt of Government marginally declined whereas non-Government debt increased and their shares in total external debt were 18.5 per cent and 81.5 per cent, respectively, at end-June 2015 (Table 3).

• Debt service payments remained at 7.5 per cent as in the previous quarter (Table 4).

Sangeeta Das
Director

Press Release : 2015-2016/792