India's external debt stood at $455.9 billion during the first six months of this fiscal, which was higher by 3.1 percent from March-end level. The rise in external debt during the period was due to long-term external debt particularly commercial borrowings and NRI deposits. The external debt consist of long-term debt of $369.5 billion up 4.7 percent from March 2014 and short-term debt $86.4 billion which was down 3.2 percent from March end level.
As per the Finance Ministry notification, share of commercial borrowings was highest at 35.4 percent of total external debt, followed by NRI deposits at 23.8 percent and multilateral debt at 11.7 percent. Sovereign external debt stood at $88.4 billion in September, up from $81.5 billion in March 2014.
Currency wise, the share of US dollar denominated debt continued to be the highest in external debt stock at 60.1 percent at end-September 2014, followed by the Indian rupee 24.2 percent, Special Drawing Rights (SDR) 6.5 percent, Japanese yen 4.5 percent and euro 3 percent.