India's External debt up by 9.4pc to USD 334.9 bn till Dec 2011

New Delhi, Mar 31 (PTI) India's external debt rose by 9.4 per cent during the first three quarters of the 2011-12 fiscal to USD 334.9 billion as at the end of December 2011 from USD 306.1 billion at 2011 March end, largely due to higher commercial borrowings and short term trade credit. "At end-December 2011, India's total external debt increased by 9.4 per cent (USD 28.8 billion) to USD 334.9 billion at end-December 2011 from USD 306.1 billion over end-March 2011," the Finance Ministry said in a notification. "The rise in external debt is largely due to higher commercial borrowings and short-term trade credit," it said. The notification said the long-term debt stood at USD 256.9 billion at end-December 2011, up by 6.5 per cent over the end-March 2011 level, while short-term debt increased by USD 13.1 billion up by 20.1 per cent to USD 78.1 billion. "Short-term debt accounted for 23.3 per cent of India’s total external debt, while the remaining 76.7 per cent was long-term debt," it said. However, the commercial borrowings showed a highest rise of over 29 per cent, followed by non resident Indian (NRI) deposits and multilateral debt. "The share of commercial borrowings stood highest at 29.9 per cent, followed by non-resident Indian (NRI) deposits at 15.7 per cent and multilateral debt at 14.9 per cent," it added. Government or sovereign external debt, however, stood at USD 81.2 billion, which is 24.3 per cent of total external debt at end-December 2011 as against USD 78.1 billion (25.5 per cent in 9 months period) at end-March 2011. The share of US dollar denominated debt was the highest in external debt stock at 56.9 per cent at end-December last year, followed by the Indian rupee (18.6 per cent), Japanese Yen (10.4 per cent), SDR (8.9 per cent) and Euro (3.8 per cent). "India’s external debt to GDP ratio stood at 20.0 per cent at end-December 2011 vis-à-vis 17.8 per cent at end-March 2011," it added. PTI