As per the IMF’s latest figures, with private debt at 54.5% and government debt at 70.4%, total debt for India added up to about 125% of GDP in 2107. It is in sharp contrast to, say, high debt levels in China, which is estimated at 247% of GDP. Our foreign debt levels also seem at prudent levels.
The International Monetary Fund says that India’s debt to GDP ratio is lower than most of its emerging market peers. It is notable that private debt including corporate debt, in terms of percentage, has declined from almost 60% to 54.5%, in the past few years. It points to lacklustre investment in the private corporate sector, which has slowly begun to change only in the last quarter or so. We need to develop an active corporate debt market here, to boost investments with transparency.
