In the same period, the dollar-denominated debt dipped to 41.6 per cent of the total debt, compared with 49 per cent as on December 2002.
However, the external debt declined marginally by about $0.62 billion in the October-December quarter. External debt at the end of September 2003 was $112.72 billion.
The currency composition of the external debt shows that dollar-denominated debt has shrunk to 41.6 per cent, compared with 44.2 per cent at the end of September 2003 and 49 per cent at the end of December 2002.
The lowering of the dollar component means that the government will not be able to take full advantage of the softening of the greenback. The currency composition of the debt also shows that Euro-denominated debt is only 6.4 per cent, which is virtually same at that in previous quarters.
Rupee denominated debt stock stands at 21.4 per cent, followed by Singapore dollars at 15.6 per cent and Japanese Yen at 11.3 per cent. Of the total debt stock, the share of short term debt has risen to 5.9 per cent in the end of December 2003, compared with 4.4 per cent in December 2002.
The share of short term debt to total foreign currency assets in the same period stood at 6.8 per cent.
At the height of the foreign exchange crisis in March 1991, the share was 382.1 per cent.
The sectoral composition of external debt shows that commercial borrowings slipped over 8.8 per cent to $20.55 billion at the end of December 2003, against $22.54 billion in December 2002.
The report says the fall reflects the impact of redemption of Resurgent India Bonds. On a corresponding note, the share of NRI deposits, rose by 32.5 per cent to $ 28.96 billion from $ 21.85 billion, and 5.9 per cent from that of last quarter.
The report says the increase in the NRI deposits as well as that of rupee debt was partly due to the redemption of the Resurgent India Bonds.
