NEW DELHI: India's external debt of USD 620.7 billion, at March end 2022, is sustainable and is being kept up in a prudent way, the Department of Economic Affairs, under the Union Finance Ministry, said in a statement.

In the latest report, the Economic Affairs Department officials said India's external debt continues to be sustainable and prudently managed.

The report said that the external debt to GDP ratio was 19.9 percent, while the reserves to external debt ratio was 97.8 percent as of the end of March 2022. "As of end-March 2022, it stood at USD 620.7 billion, up by 8.2 percent over the level a year before," the report stated. The increase in the sovereign debt, which now stands at USD 130.7 billion, is mostly attributable to the IMF's extra allotment of special drawing rights (SDR) for the years 2021–2022. On the other hand, the non-sovereign debt increased by 6.1 percent to USD 490 billion above the level as of the end of March 2021.

Experts said, the USD 620.7 billion in external debt, of which USD 490 billion is non-government debt and just USD 130.8 billion is government debt, need not be a cause for alarm. The portion of non-financial corporations in the non-government debt was roughly USD 250.2 billion.

Further, the debt service ratio was 5.2 percent and the total debt of USD 620.7 billion as a proportion of GDP was 19.9 percent. Experts added that Sri Lanka, which is experiencing a terrible economic crisis, cannot be compared to India.

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