The external debt of the country slides marginally to $222.6 billion in the second quarter ended September 2008.

According to the sources from Finance Ministry, the reporting quarter witnessed lesser commercial borrowings from abroad and non-resident Indian deposits that helped to decline the debt figures.

Country's external debt was registered at $223.81 billion at the end of June. The ratio of foreign exchange reserves to total external debt also stands at comfortable level of 128.6%.

The quarterly external debt statistics (QEDS) of World Bank shows that the country has the lowest level of external debt to the gross domestic product (GDP) ratio.

County's long term external debt also witnessed decline of $2.69 billion and stands at $172.51 billion in the reporting quarter. Long term external debts contribute 78% of total external debt of the ountry.

Meanwhile, private debt continued to increase during the quarter which contributes three-fourths of the total external debt. Country's short term debt stood a $91.92 billion at end-September 2008. FII investments in government securities and external liabilities of the banking system have shown increase by $1.49 billion to $50.10 billion in the given quarter.