External Debt Increases $ 10.3bn In Q3

New Delhi: The country''s external debt increased to $ 201.4 billion as on December 31, 2007, an increase of $ 10.3 billion over the quarter. The increase in debt was mainly fetched about by external commercial borrowing and short-term debt. Valuation change on account of depreciation of US dollar vis-a-vis major international currency and Indian rupee accounted for $ 1.1 billion of the increase during the quarter. For the quarter ended December 31, 2007, long term debt increased by $ 6.3 billion to $ 166.2 billion and short-term debt by $ 4 billion to $ 35.2 billion over the quarter. Amongst the components of long-term debt, commercial borrowing increased by $ 4.9 billion (9.4 per cent) to $ 57 billion. While NRI deposits fell by 1.5 per cent ($ 0.6 billion) to $ 43 billion, multilateral debt, bilateral debt and export credit increased marginally to touch $ 37.9 billion, $ 17.3 billion and $ 8.9 billion, respectively, at end-December 2007.