Friday, March 31 2006 14:22 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

New Delhi: India's external debt declined by five billion US dollar to 119.2 billion dollar at the end of December 2005 from the previous quarter ending September following the redemption of India Millennium Deposits.

The four per cent decline in external debt from 124.2 billion dollars during September-end 2005 was due to a drop in external commercial borrowings, reflecting IMD redemption by the country's largest bank State Bank of India in December.

Of the total external debt, long-term debt fell 5.4 billion dollar to 110.26 billion dollar while short term rose by 533 million dollar to 8.9 billion dollar in December-end, according to official statistics.

The external debt to GDP ratio has further dropped to 17.3 per cent as of March-end 2005 from 17.8 per cent in the previous year. The proportion of short-term debt in total debt as well as the ratio of short-term debt to foreign current assets rose to 7.5 per cent and 6.8 per cent respectively in December-end 2005.

Under long-term debt, multilateral debt increased by 370 million dollar to 31.79 billion dollar in December as compared to 31.42 billion dollar in the previous quarter. However, this was offset by a decline in bilateral credits by 322 million dollar, which stood at 15.55 billion dollar.

Export credit outstanding at 5.16 billion dollar showed no significant change during the October-December quarter. ECBs stood at 22.43 billion dollars, lower by 5.88 billion dollars mainly due to IMD redemption and contraction in FII investment in Indian debt papers.