India's December external debt falls to $456.1 billion: Govt

India`s end-December external debt fell by $29 billion to $456.1 billion from end-September, largely driven by a decline in long-term debt, the finance ministry said on Friday.

The fall in Non-resident Indian deposits reflected Foreign Currency Non-Repatriable (B) deposits redemption.

On a residual maturity basis, short-term debt constituted 41.4 percent of total external debt at end-December.

Sources from Bloomberg said that external debt dominated by long-term borrowings which were at $372.2b as of end-December.