The External Debt Management Unit (EDMU), Department of Economic Affairs, Ministry of Finance, recently released the 28th edition of the Status Report on India’s External Debt 2021-22.
Highlights
- Long term debt: USD 499.1 billion constituted the largest chunk of 80.4 per cent of total
- Short-term debt: USD 121.7 billion accounted for 19.6 per cent of total
- NRI deposits: Declined by 2 per cent to USD 139.0 billion
- Non-sovereign debt: Grew 6.1 per cent to USD 490.0 billion over the level as of end-March 2021
- Non-sovereign external debt: Estimated at USD 490.0 billion as at end-March 2022
- Sovereign debt: USD 130.7 billion rose higher by 17.1 per cent over its level a year ago
- Debt service ratio: It fell significantly to 5.2 per cent during 2021-22 from 8.2 per cent in the previous year
- SDRs: Rose to US$ 22.9 billion from US$ 5.5 billion as at end-March 2021
- Commercial borrowings, NRI deposits and short-term trade credit are the three biggest constituents of the non-sovereign debt, accounting for as much as 95.2 per cent.
- Short-term trade credit increased by 20.7 per cent to US$117.4 billion at the end of March 2022, thanks to a significant increase in imports during 2021-22.
- In a cross-country perspective, India’s external debt is modest, ranking 23rd globally.
- India’s stability in terms of different credit vulnerability indicators was better than that of low and middle income countries (LMICs) as a group and even better than many of them individually.