India's total external debt stood at USD 440.6 billion as at end-March 2014 recording an increase of USD 31.2 billion or 7.6% over the level at end-March 2013. The rise in external debt was due to long-term debt particularly NRI deposits.

The surge in NRI deposits reflected the impact of fresh FCNR(B) deposits mobilised under the swap scheme during September-November 2013 to tide over the difficult BoP situation in the initial parts of the year.

At end-March 2014, long-term external debt was USD 351.4 billion, showing an increase of 12.4% over the level at end-March 2013. At this level, long-term external debt accounted for 79.7% of total external debt at end-March 2014 vis-à-vis 76.4% at end-March 2013.

Short-term external debt stood at USD 89.2 billion at end-March 2014, showing a decline of 7.7% over USD 96.7 billion at the end-March 2013. This owed to the compression in import arising from the slowdown in aggregate demand and restrictions on gold imports. Thus, the share of short-term external debt in total external debt declined from 23.6% at end-March 2013 to 20.3% at end-March 2014.

Government (sovereign) external debt stood at USD 81.5 billion at end-March 2014 vis-a-vis USD 81.7 billion at end-March 2013. The share of Government external debt in total external debt was lower at 18.5% at end-March 2014 as compared to 19.9% at end-March 2013.

India's external debt has remained within manageable limits as indicated by the external debt-GDP ratio of 23.3% and debt service ratio of 5.9% during 2013-14. External debt of the country continues to be dominated by the long-term borrowings.