Press Information Bureau

Government of India

Ministry of Finance

15-May-2012 18:03 IST

External Debt Position of the Country

At end-December 2011, India’s external debt stock stood at US$ 334.9 billion recording an increase of 9.4 per cent over the level of US$ 306.1 billion at end-March 2011. The rise in external debt is largely attributed to higher commercial borrowings and short term debt.

India’s external debt has remained within manageable limits due to prudent debt management policy that emphasizes raising sovereign loans on concessional terms with longer maturities, regulating external commercial borrowings through end-use and all-in-cost restrictions, rationalizing interest rates on Non Resident Indian (NRI) deposits and monitoring long as well as short-term debt.

This information was given by the Minister of State for Finance, Shri Namo Narain Meena in written reply to a question in Rajya Sabha today.

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DSM/SS/Hb

External debt management emphasises concessional sovereign borrowing and restrictions on commercial inflows to maintain debt sustainability. India's external debt rose to US$ 334.9 billion at end December 2011 (a 9.4% increase), mainly due to higher commercial borrowings and short term debt; the Government credits manageability to a debt management policy emphasising concessional long maturity sovereign loans, end use and all in cost restrictions on external commercial borrowings, rationalisation of NRI deposit interest rates, and monitoring of long and short term liabilities.