The rise in external debt during the period was due to long-term external debt particularly commercial borrowings and NRI deposits, according to a government release.
Long-term debt was US$ 369.5 billion at end-September 2014, showing an increase of 4.7 per cent over the end-March 2014 level, while short-term debt declined by 3.2 per cent to US$ 86.4 billion.
Short-term debt accounted for 18.9 per cent of India’s total external debt at end-September 2014, while the remaining (81.1 per cent) was long-term debt. Component-wise, the share of commercial borrowings stood highest at 35.4 per cent of total external debt, followed by NRI deposits (23.8 per cent) and multilateral debt (11.7 per cent).
Government (Sovereign) external debt stood at US$ 88.4 billion, (19.4 per cent of total external debt) at end-September 2014 vis-a-vis US$ 81.5 billion (18.4 per cent) at end-March 2014.
The ratio of concessional debt to total external debt was 9.8 per cent at end-September 2014 as compared to 10.5 per cent at end-March 2014.