BackGovternmet’s public debt ticks up 2.1% in September quarter
The outstanding internal debt of the government at `49.85 lakh crore constituted 37.4% of GDP at September-end 2015
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New Delhi: The public debt of the central government provisionally rose 2.1% in July-September this fiscal on a quarterly basis.
The total public debt (excluding liabilities under the ‘public account’) of the government increased to ₹ 54.12 lakh crore at September-end 2015, from ₹ 53.01 lakh crore at June-end 2015, said the Quarterly Report on Debt Management for July-September 2015.
“This represented a quarter-on-quarter (qoq) increase of 2.1% (provisional) compared with an increase of 3.2% in the previous quarter (first quarter of 2015-16)," it said.
Internal debt constituted 92.1% of public debt compared with 92.3% in the previous quarter. Marketable securities (consisting of rupee-denominated dated securities and treasury bills) accounted for 84.5% of total public debt, the same level as on end-June 2015.
About 27.2% of outstanding stock has a residual maturity of up to 5 years, which implies that over the next five years, on an average, around 5.4% of outstanding stock needs to be rolled over every year.
“Thus, the rollover risk in debt portfolio continues to be low. The implementation of budgeted buyback/switches in coming months is expected to reduce rollover risk further," the report said.
As per the report, the outstanding internal debt of the government at ₹ 49.85 lakh crore constituted 37.4% of GDP at September-end 2015 compared with 37.8% at June-end 2015.
During the second quarter of the fiscal, the government issued dated securities worth ₹ 1.71 lakh crore, taking gross borrowings during first half of 2015-16 to ₹ 3.51 lakh crore, or 58.5% of Budget Estimate (BE), vis-a-vis 58.7% of BE in first half of 2014-15.
“The market borrowings calendar for the second half of 2015-16 have been adjusted down by ₹ 15,000 crore to take into account expected government borrowings through the Sovereign Gold Bond and Gold Monetisation Scheme," the report said.
The market saw a sharp correction in mid-August 2015 on account of devaluation of Chinese yuan and concerns over slowdown in the Chinese economy, which led to massive sell-off across asset classes globally. PTI
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