The RBI has in its annual report noted that on the liability (external debt) side, short-term debt declined from 5.5 per cent of the total stock of external debt at the end of March 1998 to 4.4 per cent as at end-March 1999, stating that "there was a significant improvement in the composition of external debt and key indicators of debt sustainability.
While the external debt-GDP ratio declined from 23.8 per cent at end-March 1998 to 23.7 per cent at the end of March 1999, the debt service ratio fell from 19.1 per cent to 18 per cent at end-March 1999. The ratio of short term debt to foreign currency assets was at 14.7 per cent as against 19.4 per cent at end-March 1998." 4 billion