India's external debt was $242.8 billion at the end of September 2009

India's total external debt stock at US$ 242.8 billion as at end-September 2009 recorded an increase of US$ 18.2 billion or 8.1% over end-March 2009 estimates. The long-term debt increased by US$ 19.2 billion (10.6%) to US$ 200.4 billion, while short-term debt was lower by US$ 985 million (-2.3%) to US$ 42.4 billion. Over the previous quarter, the increase in external debt as at end-September 2009 was US$ 13.0 billion or 5.7%.

Of the total increase of US$ 18.2 billion in India's external debt at end-September 2009, the valuation effect on account of depreciation of US dollar against major international currencies accounted for US$ 8.3 billion or 45.6%. The increase in total external debt also reflected the impact of inclusion of cumulative SDR allocations to India by International Monetary Fund as a long-term debt liability in external debt statistics.

Short-term external debt by original maturity stood at US$ 42.4 billion at end-September 2009, while total short-term debt by residual maturity was US$ 93.2 billion, accounting for 38.4% of total external debt outstanding and 33.1% of foreign exchange reserves at end-September 2009.

Government (Sovereign) external debt was US$ 65.7 billion as at end-September 2009 as against US$ 55.9 billion as at end-March 2009. At this level, its share in total external debt was also higher at 27.1% at end-September 2009 (24.9% at end-March 2009). The ratio of Government external debt to GDP has remained around 5.0% in the last three years.

US dollar denominated debt accounted for 51.4% of total external debt at end-September 2009, followed by Indian rupee (16.6%), Japanese Yen (13.6%), SDR (12.0%) and Euro (3.9%).

The debt-service ratio i.e., the ratio of total debt service payments to current receipts worked out to 4.9% during April-September 2009 as against 3.7% for April-September 2008. The ratio of short-term external debt to foreign exchange reserves, which had increased from 14.8% at end-March 2008 to 17.2% at end-March 2009, was also lower at 15.1% at end-September 2009.

Source : Equity Bulls

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