ADVERTISEMENT

Government Liabilities Rise To Rs 84.6 Lakh Crore In Q1: Finance Ministry Report

Public debt accounted for 89.4 percent of total outstanding liabilities at end-June 2019, the report said.

Indian two thousand and five hundred rupee banknotes are arranged for a photograph in Mumbai, India. (Photographer: Dhiraj Singh/Bloomberg)
Indian two thousand and five hundred rupee banknotes are arranged for a photograph in Mumbai, India. (Photographer: Dhiraj Singh/Bloomberg)

Total liabilities of the government increased to Rs 88.18 lakh crore at end-June 2019 from Rs 84.68 lakh crore at end-March 2019, according to the latest data on public debt.

Public debt accounted for 89.4 percent of total outstanding liabilities at end-June 2019, the quarterly report on public debt management released on Friday said.

"Nearly 28.9 percent of the outstanding dated securities had a residual maturity of less than five years. The holding pattern indicates a share of 40.3 percent for commercial banks and 24.3 percent for insurance companies at end-March 2019," it said.

During the first quarter of the current fiscal, the central government issued dated securities worth Rs 2,21,000 crore as against Rs 1,44,000 crore in the same period a year ago.

The weighted average maturity of new issuances stood at 15.86 years in the quarter as against 14.18 years in the fourth quarter of the last fiscal, according to data collated by Public Debt Management Cell.

Government-Securities yields have shown a moderating trend in the first quarter of the fiscal with the rate declining to 7.21 percent compared to the weighted average yield of 7.47 percent in the previous quarter.

This reflected the impact of several developments namely reduction in policy repo rate twice under the Liquidity Adjustment Facility by 25 basis points each, Open Market Operation purchase auction and a downward movement in the yield on U.S. 10-year treasury bond.

During April-June 2019, the central government did not raise any amount through the issuance of Cash Management Bills and the net average liquidity injection by the Reserve Bank of India under LAF including Marginal Standing Facility was Rs 17,599.3 crore during the quarter.

The yield on 10-year benchmark G-Sec (7.26 percent GS 2029) closed at 6.88 percent on June 29, 2019, it said.

The central government dated securities continued to account for a major share of total trading volumes in the secondary market, with a share of 86.0 percent in total outright trading volumes in value terms during the first quarter of the current fiscal, it added.

With regard to net foreign direct investment, it increased substantially at 51 percent to $14.4 billion as compared to $9.5 billion in the first quarter of the previous fiscal.

India's foreign exchange reserves stood at $427.7 billion as on June 28, 2019, up from $406.1 billion over that on June 29, 2018.