India's external debt rises to $112.6 bn

India's per capita external debt at the end of March this year stood at Rs 4,556 and total external debt rose to $112.6 billion in June.

The total debt service payment rose to $20,949 million in 2003-04 from $11,543 million in 1999-00, $12,821 in 2000-01, $10,862 in 2001-02 and $15,081 in 2002-03, Finance Minister P Chidambaram said.

Stating that the government followed a prudent external debt management policy, he said it had prepaid high cost sovereign loans of $2.9 billion and $3.8 billion in 2002-03 and 2003-04 respectively.

On the inflow of foreign direct investment, Chidambaram said the Reserve Bank of India had reported that India received FDI worth $6.13 billion, $4.66 billion and $4.67 billion in 2001-02, 2002-03 and 2003-04 respectively.

In comparison, the United Nations Conference on Trade and development had reported that FDI in China was $46.88 billion in 2001, $52.74 billion in 2002 and $53.5 billion in 2003, he said.