External debt down $5 bn

India's external debt declined by $5 billion to $119.2 billion by end of December 2005. The four per cent decline was essentially brought about by a drop in external commercial borrowings, reflecting redemption of India Millennium Deposits of $ 5.5 billion by the State Bank of India in the month.

Of the total external debt, long-term debt fell $5.4 billion to $110.26 billion while short-term debt rose by $533 million to $8.9 billion. The external debt to GDP ratio has further dropped to 17.3 per cent as of March-end 2005, from 17.8 per cent in the previous year.

The proportion of short-term debt to total debt as well as the ratio of short-term debt to foreign current assets rose to 7.5 per cent and 6.8 per cent respectively in December 2005. Multilateral debt increased by $370 million to $31.79 billion as compared to $31.42 billion in the previous quarter.

However, this was offset by a decline in bilateral credits by $322 million, which stood at $15.55 billion. Export credit outstanding at $5.16 billion showed no significant change during October-December 2005 quarter.

ECBs stood at $22.43 billion, lower by $5.88 billion.