As of the end of the 2024-2025 fiscal year (March 31, 2025), India’s central government debt is estimated to be approximately ₹181.74 trillion, which is about 57.1% of the country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP). This marks an increase from ₹171.78 trillion (58.2% of GDP) at the end of March 2024 Breaking down the debt components, internal debt and other liabilities are projected at ₹175.56 trillion, while external debt stands at ₹6.18 trillion.as of September 2024, India’s total external debt was recorded at $711.8 billion, the government external debt has been stable at around 2.5% of the gdp. this shows that 90% of external debt has been pvt sector and institutional. Even this has been stable at around there was a surge around 2012-2014 period due to surge in crude oil prices and growing gold imports, which led to record high CAD which stabilised by 2014. what begs the question though is the high levels of debt despite having a decade of low crude prices. coupled with the sluggish growth in exports over the decade, hardly 65% compared to over 200% in the previous decade, it makes the problem more difficult. its not the macroeconomics in question but the efficacy of the usage of external debt.
is our debt being used effectively
