By IANS
New Delhi : India’s external debt has jumped $10.3 in the quarter ended Dec 31, 2007, to cross the $200 billion mark, due to short-term commercial borrowings and short-term debt, the finance ministry said Monday.
In contrast, the country’s foreign exchange reserves stood at $275.3 billion and provided cover of 137 percent to the total external debt, the ministry said.
Compared with $167.7 billion as at the end of March last year, the external debt moved up by $31.8 billion in the nine months and stood at $201.5 billion.
The share of the US dollar in India’s external debt portfolio that had been showing an increasing trend over the last few years moved up further to 54.5 percent at end-December 2007 from 52 percent at end-March 2007.