AMN
UNION Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman has said that the total amount of the Central Government debt or liabilities is estimated at about 155.8 lakh crore rupees as on 31st March, 2023. It is 57.3 percent of GDP. Ms Sitharaman told Lok Sabha on Monday that out of this, external debt valued at current exchange rate is estimated at 7.03 lakh crore rupees and it is 2.6 percent of GDP.
On the question, whether the external debt of the country has become heavily burdened due to steep appreciation of the US dollar in recent times against the Indian rupee, She replied that the share of external debt is only about 4.5 per cent of total debt or liabilities of the Central Government and less than 3 percent of GDP. The Minister informed that external debt is mostly financed by multilateral and bilateral agencies at concessional rates and therefore, the risk profile stands out as safe and prudent. She said, RBI in consultation with the Government has announced various measures recently to diversify and expand the sources of forex funding to mitigate exchange rate volatility and global spillovers.