India accounts for 16 per cent of Asia-Pacific borrowings

India’s external debt of $474 billion accounted for 16 per cent of the Asia-Pacific region’s borrowings between 2010 and 2015, according to Moody’s Investors Service. “India had $474 billion in external debt as of 2015, representing 16 per cent of the Asia Pacific region’s total debt,” according to a report from the investor arm of Moody’s.

“India’s external debt has grown two to three times slower than China, at a five-year annual average rate of 8.4 per cent (and a ten-year annual average rate of 13.4 per cent). As a result, the external debt to GDP ratio in India has risen from 17 per cent in 2005 to 23 per cent in 2015, but is still one of the lowest globally.”

In dollar terms, China represented 17 per cent of total emerging market external debt at the end of 2015, Brazil accounted for 8 per cent, Russia 6 per cent, and India another 6 per cent. As of 2015, India’s public sector debt accounted for 4 per cent of global public sector debt, the same proportion a decade earlier. Private sector external debt in 2015 was 7 per cent of the global amount, up two percentage points from 2005.

This represents a much smaller proportionate increase in private sector external debt than that in China. China’s private sector external debt, comprising 11 per cent of the global total in 2005, ballooned to 22 per cent in 2015.