India’s foreign debt up 10% to $736.3 bn at March 2025 end

Mumbai: India’s external debt increased by 10 per cent to $736.3 billion at the end of March 2025 compared to $668.8 billion in the year-ago period, the RBI said on Friday.

As a percentage of the GDP, the external debt increased to 19.1 per cent at the end of FY from 18.5 per cent a year ago, it added.

The RBI said the “valuation effect” due to the appreciation of the US dollar against the rupee and other currencies amounted to $5.3 billion, while if one were to exclude the valuation effect, external debt would have increased by $72.9 billion instead of $67.5 billion in the year.

The overall debt included $261.7 billion of loans taken by non-financial corporations, $168.4 billion by the government and $202.1 billion by deposit-taking corporations, excluding the central bank, the RBI said.

At March-end 2025, long-term debt (with an original maturity of above one year) was $601.9 billion, an increase of $60.6 billion over the year. The share of short-term debt (with original maturity of up to one year) in total external debt fell to 18.3 per cent at March-end 2025 from 19.1 per cent a year ago, but the ratio of short-term debt to forex reserves jumped to 20.1 per cent in FY25 against 19.7 per cent at the end of March 2024.