The country’s external debt at end-June 2020 was lower at $554.5 billion, recording a decrease of $2.4 billion from $556.9 billion recorded in June 2019. The June 2020 external debt level was lower by $3.9 billion over its level of $558.4 billion at end-March 2020, the RBI said on Wednesday. The year-on-year percentage variation was -0.4, while the month-on-month percentage variation was -0.7, it said. The external debt-to-GDP ratio increased to 21.8% at end-June 2020 from 20.6% at end-March 2020.Valuation loss due to the depreciation of the U.S. dollar vis-à-vis major currencies such as the euro, yen and SDR were at $0.7 billion. Excluding the valuation effect, the decrease in external debt would have been $4.5 billion instead of $3.9 billion at end-June 2020 over end-March 2020, RBI data showed.Commercial borrowings remained the largest component of external debt, with a share of 38.1%, followed by non-resident deposits (23.9%) and short-term trade credit (18.2%).
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