India fifth most indebted country among developing nations

New Delhi, Aug 12 (PTI) The Indian government on Friday
said that India is the fifth most indebted country among the
20 developing nations but its debt is within manageable
limits.
"According to the 'Global Development Finance-2011'
published by the World Bank, India ranked fifth in 2009 in
terms of absolute external debt stock among the top 20 debtor
developing countries after China, Russian Federation, Brazil
and Turkey," Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee said in reply
to a query during Question Hour in Lok Sabha (lower house of
Parliament).
However, he maintained that India had managed its external
debt well and there was no cause for concern.
"As a result of prudent external debt management, India's
external debt has remained within manageable limits, as
indicated by the external debt to GDP ratio of 17.3 per cent
and debt-service ratio of 4.2 per cent in 2010-11," Mukherjee
said.
He informed the House that the external debt management
policy of the government emphasises on raising sovereign
credit on concessional terms with longer maturities;
regulating external commercial borrowings through end-use and
all-in-cost restrictions; rationalising interest rates on NRI
deposits and monitoring long and short term debt.
India's long-term external debt stood at $ 240.9 billion
at March-2011 end, short-term external debt at $ 65 billion.
Hence the total external debt adds up to $ 305.9 billion.
India's external debt, on Government Account under
External Assistance, stood at $ 62.4 billion at March-end,
2011 comprising multilateral debt of $ 42.6 billion and
bilateral debt of $ 19.8 billion.