Since 2010-11, the Central Government has been bringing-out an Annual Status Paper on Public Debt that provides a detailed analysis of the overall debt position of the Government of India. This is the Fifth Edition of the Status Paper being released today.

This paper enhances transparency by providing a detailed account of debt operations and providing an assessment of the health of the public debt portfolio on internationally accepted debt performance indicators. The Paper also includes some developments in debt markets since last Status Paper, such as issuance of non-standard maturity dated paper and issuance of 40 year paper etc. The overall liabilities of the Central Government are on a medium-term declining trajectory with Government’s debt portfolio characterized by prudent risk profile. Government is primarily resorting to market linked borrowings for financing its fiscal deficit. Conventional indicators of debt sustainability, i.e. level and cost of debt, indicate that debt profile of the Government is comfortably placed in terms of sustainability parameters of public debt and consistently improving.

The Status paper is available on the Ministry of Finance’s website www.finmin.nic.in

Government debt sustainability affirmed as portfolio shows improving indicators and medium term declining liabilities, favoring market linked borrowings. The Fifth Edition of the Status Paper on Government Debt reports enhanced public debt transparency, a medium term declining trajectory in central government liabilities, and a debt portfolio characterised by a prudent risk profile; it emphasises market linked borrowings, issuance of longer maturity instruments, and improvement in conventional debt sustainability indicators such as level and cost of debt.