External commercial borrowing of India Inc may stay muted in FY23

Approvals may be $30-35 bn in FY23, says ICRA

The external commercial borrowing (ECB) by Indian companies is likely to stay muted in the current financial year due to a sharp increase in interest rates in developed markets. 

Rating agency ICRA said ECB approvals were expected to remain at $30-35 billion in FY23, which would be lower than $38.6 billion in FY22. The approvals stood at $35.1 billion in FY21.

The approvals fell to $6.67 billion in the second quarter ended September 2022 (Q2FY23) from $10.2 billion in the same period a year ago. However, sequentially, they were up from $3.37 billion in Q1FY23.

Given the sharper increase seen