The country's total outstanding external debt has gone up marginally
from $112.5 billion at the end of March 2004 to $112.6 billion at the
end of June 2004. Of this, the proportion of short-term debt has gone
up, while that of long-term debt has come down.
According to creditor classification, bilateral debt declined by $340
million over the quarter, from $17.49 billion to $17.15 billion. Share
of bilateral debt in total external debt was 15.2 per cent. Multilateral
debt rose from $29.6 billion to $29.7 billion over the quarter.
NRI deposits declined by $735 million, from $31.2 billion to $30.8 billion
at the end of Q1 and accounted for 27 per cent of total debt, as against
28 per cent at the end of the previous fiscal. Export credit and commercial
borrowings, however, registered small changes.
Short-term debt rose from $4.7 billion at the end of the previous fiscal
to $5.9 billion at the end of the first quarter, on account of trade-related
credits reflecting buoyant imports, according to the finance ministry.
Long-term debt, on the other hand, went down from $107.8 billion at
the end of March 2004 to $106.7 billion at the end of the first quarter
this fiscal.
The rising levels of short-term debt were also reflected in a worsening
of the short-term debt-to-total external debt ratio. The ratio, which
had improved from 10.2 per cent at the end of March 1991 to 4.2 per
cent at end-March 2004, inched up to 5.2 per cent at end-June 2004.
The ratio of short-term debt to foreign exchange reserves rose from
4.2 per cent at the end of the previous fiscal to 4.9 per cent at the
end of Q1 this fiscal.
Concessional debt fell from $40.30 billion at end-March 2004 to $39.82
billion at end-June 2004.