The external debt of India is the debt the country owes to foreign creditors. The debtors can be the Union government, state governments, corporations or citizens of India. The debt includes money owed to private commercial banks, foreign governments, or international financial institutions such as the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank.
India's external debt data is published quarterly, with a lag of one quarter. Statistics for the first two quarters of the calendar year are compiled and published by the Reserve Bank of India. Data for the last two quarters is compiled and published by the Ministry of Finance. The Government of India also publishes an annual status report on the debt which contains detailed statistical analysis of the country's external debt position.
At end-March 2022, India’s external debt was placed at US$620.7 billion, recording an increase of US$47.1 billion over its level at end-March 2021. India’s external debt was US$570 billion at the end of March 2021. It recorded an increase of US$11.6 billion over its level at end of March 2020. The external debt to GDP ratio declined to 19.9 per cent at end-March 2022 from 21.2 per cent at end-March 2021.[1]
The foreign currency reserves is at US$573 billion as on 5 August 2022. It was US$619 billion as on 25 March 2022 compared to US$579 billion at the end of March 2021 & compared to over US$474 billion at the end of March 2020. Hence the foreign currency reserves as a ratio to external debt is at 100.3% at end of Mar2022 when compared to 101.1% at end of March 2021 from 84.9% at end of March 2020.[2]