Status Report on India’s External Debt 2021-22

September 8, 2022

The External Debt Management Unit (EDMU), Department of Economic Affairs, Ministry of Finance, recently released the 28th edition of the Status Report on India’s External Debt 2021-22.

Highlights

Long term debt: USD 499.1 billion constituted the largest chunk of 80.4 per cent of total
Short-term debt: USD 121.7 billion accounted for 19.6 per cent of total
NRI deposits: Declined by 2 per cent to USD 139.0 billion
Non-sovereign debt: Grew 6.1 per cent to USD 490.0 billion over the level as of end-March 2021
Non-sovereign external debt: Estimated at USD 490.0 billion as at end-March 2022
Sovereign debt: USD 130.7 billion rose higher by 17.1 per cent over its level a year ago
Debt service ratio: It fell significantly to 5.2 per cent during 2021-22 from 8.2 per cent in the previous year
SDRs: Rose to US$ 22.9 billion from US$ 5.5 billion as at end-March 2021
Commercial borrowings, NRI deposits and short-term trade credit are the three biggest constituents of the non-sovereign debt, accounting for as much as 95.2 per cent.
Short-term trade credit increased by 20.7 per cent to US$117.4 billion at the end of March 2022, thanks to a significant increase in imports during 2021-22.
In a cross-country perspective, India’s external debt is modest, ranking 23rd globally.
India’s stability in terms of different credit vulnerability indicators was better than that of low and middle income countries (LMICs) as a group and even better than many of them individually.