E-Paper
India’s foreign debt up by $10 bn to $485 bn at end-March
India’s foreign debt at the end of March 2016 was at $485.6 billion, up by $10.6 billion from that at the end of the same month last year, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) said on Thursday.
India’s foreign debt at the end of March 2016 was at $485.6 billion, up by $10.6 billion from that at the end of the same month last year, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) said on Thursday.
“India’s external debt at end-March 2016 witnessed an increase of 2.2 per cent over its level at end-March 2015, primarily on account of a rise in outstanding NRI deposits,” RBI said in a statement here.
The increase in the size of external debt was partly offset by valuation gain resulting from the appreciation of the US dollar vis-a-vis the Indian rupee and other major currencies, it added.
The debt at the end of the last financial year was up $5.4 billion from the $480.2 billion registered at end-December 2015.
RBI placed the valuation gain, due to appreciation of the US dollar at $5.9 billion.
“Excluding the valuation effect, the increase in external debt would have been higher by $16.4 billion at end-March 2016 over the level at end-March 2015,” RBI said.
The share of residual maturity short-term debt at end-March 2016 constituted about 42.6 per cent of the country’s total external debt, compared with 38.2 percent at end-March 2015, and stood at 57.4 per cent of the total forex reserves, it added.
“US dollar denominated debt continued to be the largest component of India’s external debt with a share of 57.1 per cent at end-March 2016, followed by Indian rupee (28.9 per cent), SDR (5.8 per cent), Japanese Yen (4.4 per cent) and Euro (2.5 per cent),” the statement said.
