India's external debt at $571.3B at June-end, up $1.6B from March: RBI

India's external debt stood at $571.3 billion at end-June, recording an increase of $1.6 billion over its level at the end of March 2021, the RBI said on Thursday.

However, the external debt to GDP ratio declined to 20.2 percent at June-end 2021 from 21.1 percent as on March 31.

Valuation gain due to the appreciation of the US dollar vis-a-vis the Indian rupee was at $1.7 billion.

"Excluding the valuation effect, external debt would have increased by $3.3 billion instead of $1.6 billion at end-June 2021 over end-March 2021," the central bank said.

As per the data, commercial borrowings remained the largest component of external debt, with a share of 37.4 percent, followed by non-resident deposits (24.8 percent) and short-term trade credit (17.4 percent).

As on June 30, long-term debt (with original maturity of above one year) stood at $468.8 billion, recording an increase of $0.2 billion over its level at March-end, the central bank said.

The share of short term debt in total external debt rose marginally to 17.9 percent as on June 30 from 17.7 percent at end-March.

However, the ratio of short-term debt (original maturity) to foreign exchange reserves declined to 16.8 percent from 17.5 percent at end-March 2021.

The Reserve Bank further said the US dollar denominated debt remained the largest component of India's external debt, with a share of 52.4 percent at end-June, followed by the Indian rupee (33.2 percent), yen (5.8 percent), SDR (4.4 percent) and the euro (3.4 percent).

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The instrument-wise classification shows that loans were the largest component of external debt, with a share of 34.7 percent, followed by currency and deposits, trade credit and advances and debt securities.

Further, the borrower-wise classification shows that the outstanding debt of government decreased while non-government sector's debt increased at end-June 2021.

The RBI also said debt service (principal repayments plus interest payments) almost halved to 4.1 percent of current receipts at end-June 2021, compared to 8.2 percent at end-March 2021, reflecting lower repayment and higher current receipts.

In a separate statement, RBI said net claims of non-residents in India declined to $327 billion in June 2021.

The net claims of non-residents on India declined by $24.3 billion during the April-June quarter of 2021-22.