Question: According to the ‘Foreign Debt Status Report on India 2016-17′ released in the end of March 2017 by Department of Economic Affairs, Ministry of Finance, , how many billion US dollars foreign debt to India?
(a) 390.71 billion US dollars
(b) 400.80 billion US dollars
(c) 471.9 billion US dollars
(d) 350.60 billion US dollars
Ans: (c)
Related facts:-
- On September 15, 2017, the 23rd issue of the Annual Publication ‘India’s External Debt: A Status Report 2016-17’ prepared by the Department of Economic Affairs, Ministry of Finance, Government of India was released.
- Repots presents a detailed analysis of India’s External Debt position at end-March 2017, based on the data released by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on June 30, 2017 and data and information available from other sources.
- The salient features of the Report are:
- India’s external debt stock stood at US$ 471.9 billion at end-March 2017, decreasing by US$ 13.1 billion (2.7 per cent) over the level at end-March 2016.
- The decline in external debt was due to the decrease in long-term debt particularly NRI deposits and commercial borrowings.
- At end-March 2017, long-term external debt was US$ 383.9 billion, showing adecrease of 4.4 per cent over the level at end-March 2016.
- Long-term external debt accounted for 81.4 per cent of total external debt at end-March 2017as compared to82.8 per cent at end-March 2016.
- Short-term external debt increased by 5.5 per cent to US$ 88.0 billion at end-March 2017. This is mainly due to the increase in trade related credits, a major component of short-term debt with a share of 98.3 per cent.
- Government (sovereign) external debt increased from US$ 93.4 billion at end-March 2016 to US$ 95.8 billion at end-March 2017, and constituted 20.3 per cent of the total external debt, as compared to 19.3 per cent in the previous year.
- India’s external debt has remained within manageable limits and the external debt situation has improvedin 2016-17over 2015-16 as indicated by the increase in foreign exchange reserves cover to debt to 78.4 per cent from 74.3 per cent,and fall in the external debt-GDP ratio to20.2 per cent from 23.5 per cent.
- External debt of the country continues to be dominated by the long-term borrowings.
- It is worth noting that the World Bank’s ‘International Debt Statistics 2017’, which has presented loan data for 2015, shows that India is still counted in ‘less unsafe’ countries.
- India’s foreign credit indicators are better than other indebted or indebted developing countries.
- The ratio of external debt and gross national income to India is 23.4 percent, which reflects the fifth lowest level.
- Similarly in terms of cover provided by foreign exchange reserves for foreign debt, India was at the sixth highest level with 69.7 percent in year 2015.
Reference:
http://pib.nic.in/newsite/PrintRelease.aspx?relid=170828
http://www.pib.nic.in/newsite/hindirelease.aspx?relid=67148