New Delhi (PTI): With spurt in overseas borrowings by corporates and rupee appreciation against major currencies, India's external debt has gone up by 31.8 billion dollars in first nine months of the fiscal to 201.4 billion dollars (about Rs 7,94,017 crore).

It implies that with total population of about 110 crore, per capita debt on each Indian stood at Rs 7,218.

According to a Finance Ministry statement, the external debt stood at 169.7 billion dollars at end-March 2007 and increased by 10.3 billion dollars in the third quarter this fiscal.

In fact, the rupee appreciation led to rise in external debt by USD 6 billion dollars during April-December 2007.

The long term debt rose by 6.3 billion dollars to 166.2 billion dollars, while short-term debt increased by 4 billion dollars to 35.2 billion dollars over the third quarter.

Amongst the components of long-term debt, which accounted for 82.6 per cent of the total debt, commercial borrowings increased by USD 4.9 billion (9.4 per cent) to 57 billion dollars during the nine months.

The share of government debt in total external debt stood at 26.3 per cent or 53 billion dollars, while private debt was 73.7 per cent or 148.5 billion dollars.

The share of US dollar in the external debt portfolio continued to show an increasing trend going up to 54.5 per cent at end-December 2007 from 52 per cent at end-March 2007.

While NRI deposits declined by 1.5 per cent at 43 billion dollars, multilateral debt, bilateral debt and export credit increased marginally to reach 37.9 billion dollars, 17.3 billion dollars and 8.9 billion dollars respectively at end-December 2007.