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-March 2017 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-March 2017 are presented below.

Highlights

At end-March 2017, India’s external debt witnessed a decline of 2.7 per cent over its level at end-March 2016, primarily on account of a decline in Non-resident Indian (NRI) deposits and commercial borrowings. The decline in the magnitude of external debt was partly due to valuation loss resulting from the depreciation of the US dollar vis-à-vis the Indian rupee. The external debt to GDP ratio stood at 20.2 per cent as at end-March 2017, lower than its level of 23.5 per cent at end-March 2016.

Major highlights pertaining to India’s external debt as at end-March 2017 are presented below:

• At end-March 2017, India’s external debt was placed at US$ 471.9 billion, recording a decline of US$ 13.1 billion over its level at end-March 2016 (Table 1).

• Valuation loss due to depreciation of the US dollar vis-à-vis the Indian rupee was placed at US$ 1.5 billion. Excluding the valuation effect, the decline in external debt would have been US$ 14.6 billion instead of US$ 13.1 billion as at end-March 2017 over the level at end-March 2016.

• Commercial borrowings continued to be the largest component of external debt with a share of 36.7 per cent, followed by NRI deposits (24.8 per cent) and short-term trade credit (18.3 per cent).

• At end-March 2017, long-term debt was placed at US$ 383.9 billion, recording a decline of US$ 17.7 billion over its level at end-March 2016.

• The share of long-term debt in total external debt as at end-March 2017 was 81.4 per cent, lower than 82.8 per cent at end-March 2016.

• The share of short-term debt (original maturity) in total external debt increased to 18.6 per cent at end-March 2017 from 17.2 per cent at end-March 2016. The ratio of short-term debt (original maturity) to foreign exchange reserves increased to 23.8 per cent as at end-March 2017 (23.1 per cent at end-March 2016).

• On a residual maturity basis, short-term debt constituted 41.5 per cent of total external debt at end-March 2017 (42.7 per cent at end-March 2016) and stood at 52.9 per cent of total foreign exchange reserves (57.4 per cent at end-March 2016) (Table 2).

• US dollar denominated debt continued to be the largest component of India’s external debt with a share of 52.1 per cent as at end-March 2017, followed by the Indian rupee (33.6 per cent), SDR (5.8 per cent), Japanese yen (4.6 per cent) and Euro (2.9 per cent).

• The borrower classification shows that the outstanding debt of the Government increased; however, non-Government debt declined at end-March 2017 (Table 3).

• Debt service payments declined to 8.3 per cent of current receipts as at end-March 2017 as compared with 8.8 per cent at end-March 2016 (Table 4).

Jose J. Kattoor
Chief General Manager

Press Release : 2016-2017/3536