Mumbai Sep 29 (IANS) India s total external debt for the end-June quarter 2017 rose to $485.8 billion from $471.9 billion reported for the end-March period official data showed on Friday.
However on a year-on-year (YoY) basis the debt level increased by 1.29 per cent over the corresponding period of the previous fiscal.
"At end-June 2017 India s external debt witnessed an increase of 3.0 per cent over its level at end-March 2017 primarily on account of an increase in inflow of foreign portfolio investment into the debt segment of domestic capital market encompassed under commercial borrowings " the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) said.
"The increase in the magnitude of external debt was partly due to valuation loss resulting from the depreciation of the US dollar vis-Ã -vis the Indian rupee and other major currencies."
According to the RBI external debt to GDP ratio stood at 20.3 per cent as at end-June 2017 a shade higher than its level of 20.2 per cent at end-March 2017.
"Valuation loss due to depreciation of the US dollar vis-Ã -vis the Indian rupee and other major currencies was placed at $1.72 billion " the RBI elaborated.
"Excluding the valuation effect the increase in external debt would have been around $12.24 billion instead of $13.96 billion as at end-June 2017 over the level at end-March 2017."
The RBI disclosed that commercial borrowings continued to be the largest component of external debt with a share of 37.8 per cent followed by NRI deposits (24.3 per cent) and short-term trade credit (17.9 per cent).
As per standard practice India s external debt statistics for the quarters ending March and June are released by the RBI with a lag of one quarter and those for the quarters ending September and December by the Ministry of Finance.
--IANS
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