What India owes the world

In 1991 India pledged its gold abroad to borrow. Its reserves now cover most of what it owes the world, but what it pays for foreign money has doubled since 2011-12.

In March 1991, how long could India’s reserves have paid for its imports?

Reserves are the foreign currency and gold the RBI holds, to pay for imports and debts when other money stops coming in. Pick the closest.

A page is a month of imports.

In 1990-91, ₹35 of every ₹100 India earned abroad went on its external debt; in 2025-26, ₹5.8

This is the debt service ratio: repayments and interest on external debt, over everything earned abroad in the year. From 2006-07 it has stayed between 4.4% and 8.8%. It counts only debt, so the dividends and profits paid to foreign investors are not in it.

Debt service ratio, 1990-91 to 2025-26. DBIE, India’s external debt (US dollars, end-March).

1990-91₹35.3 of every ₹100 earned abroad went on external debt
1990-912025-26

Each coin is ₹1 of every ₹100 earned abroad, rounded to whole coins.

In March 1991 India’s reserves could pay two-thirds of the debt due within a year; in March 2026, all of it 4.6 times over

Short-term debt is what India owes for a year or less, most of it credit from suppliers for imports. Reserves first passed all of India’s external debt in March 2004 and were 1.38 times it in March 2008. India spent 3.0% of GDP more abroad than it earned in 1990-91, and 0.6% in 2025-26.

Short-term debt by original maturity and reserves, end-March. DBIE, India’s external debt (US dollars, end-March); foreign exchange reserves; balance of payments indicators.

March 1991For every ₹100 due within a year, the reserves held ₹68$8.5 bn due, $5.8 bn in reserves
1990-912025-26

The bill is every ₹100 of debt due within a year; the notes are the reserves held for it. Both are in dollars; shown in rupees as a share.

From March 2005 short-term debt includes trade credit of up to 180 days, so it is larger from then on.

Paying with everything it earned abroad, India would have needed more than 3 years to clear its 1991 debt; its 2026 debt takes only 8.5 months

At that rate the debt of March 1991 would have been paid off in June 1994, and that of March 2026 in December 2026. Against GDP the debt was 28.7% in March 1991, peaked at 38.7% in March 1992 and was 20.8% in March 2026.

External debt at end-March over the current receipts of the year to that March. DBIE, India’s external debt (US dollars, end-March); India’s overall balance of payments.

The debt in March 1991
Owed abroad $83.8 bnEarned abroad in 1990-91 $25.9 bn
Day 1 of 1,1791 April 1991
1990-912025-26

One square a day, at $71 million earned abroad a dayThe day the debt is cleared

Aid lenders held ₹42 of every ₹100 India owed abroad in 1991, and ₹16 in 2026

Debt on aid terms, cheap and long, fell from 45.9% of the total to 6.7%. Commercial borrowing, bank loans and bonds, rose from 12.2% to 39.3%. In 2025-26 India paid $13.5 bn on its aid loans and drew $11.8 bn, the first year since 2003-04 it paid back more than it drew.

External debt by lender, end-March. DBIE, India’s external debt (US dollars, end-March); external assistance.

March 1991$83.8 bn owed abroadAid lenders ₹41.8, commercial borrowing ₹12.2 of every ₹100Debt on aid terms 45.9%
19912026

Each coin is ₹1 of every ₹100 India owed abroad at end-March.

A dollar of India’s external debt cost ₹19.45 in March 1991 and ₹94.56 in March 2026

In 2025-26 the debt rose 3.6% in dollars and 14.4% in rupees. Of every ₹100 of that rise in rupees, ₹73 came from the rupee’s fall alone.

The debt in rupees over the debt in dollars, end-March. DBIE, India’s external debt in rupees and in US dollars.

March 1991₹19.45 a dollar of debtThe debt: $83.8 bn, or ₹1.63 lakh crore
1990-912025-26

The rupees a dollar of the debt cost at end-March: the debt in rupees over the debt in dollars. The pan holds the whole rupees in the fewest notes and coins of the current series; the paise are left off.

India paid ₹9.6 of every ₹100 it earned abroad for foreign money in 2024-25, twice the ₹4.6 of 2011-12

This is the interest, dividends and profits paid to foreign lenders and investors, with the profits foreign-owned firms keep invested in India, which do not leave. Of the ₹9.6, interest was ₹4.1, dividends and profits ₹3.3 and profits kept invested ₹2.3. Dividends and profits paid abroad were 4.1 times their 2019-20 amount. In 1990-91 the whole came to ₹15.9.

Investment income paid abroad over current receipts; the split from the quarterly invisibles table. DBIE, India’s overall balance of payments; invisibles payments.

2011-12Interest ₹2.1Dividends and profits ₹0.9Kept invested in India ₹1.6Total ₹4.6 of every ₹100 earned abroad
2011-122024-25

Each coin is 25 paise of every ₹100 India earned abroad that year, rounded to the nearest coin.

Every measure here is better than in 1990-91, and what India pays for foreign money has doubled since 2011-12

1990-912025-26
Reserves over the debt due within a year68%463%▲ 6.8xbetter
Months of imports the reserves could pay for2.5 months10.6 months▲ 4.2xbetter
The debt over a year’s earnings abroad323%71%▼ 4.5xbetter
The debt over GDP28.7%20.8%▼ 1.4xbetter
Of every ₹100 earned abroad, spent on external debt₹35.3₹5.8▼ 6.1xbetter
Of every ₹100 earned abroad, paid for foreign money₹15.9₹9.2▲ 2.0xsince 2011-12

Stocks at end-March, flows over the financial year. Each line runs through every year from 1990-91 to 2025-26 on its own scale; the marked dot on the last line is its low, ₹4.6 in 2011-12.

SOURCES

Reserve Bank of India and Ministry of Finance, as published on DBIE: India’s external debt in US dollars and in rupees, end-March 1991 to 2026; foreign exchange reserves; balance of payments indicators; India’s overall balance of payments; external assistance; and the quarterly invisibles payments table.

The pledge of gold in July 1991: Reserve Bank of India, The Reserve Bank of India, volume 4, chapter 12, Management and resolution of the 1991 crisis.

DOWNLOADS

External debt, reserves and the measures on this page, 1990-91 to 2025-26 (CSV)

Interest, dividends and profits paid abroad, from 2011-12 (CSV)

METHOD

Years. A year is a financial year ending in March; a stock (the debt, the reserves) is read at the end of that March. All amounts are in US dollars unless they say rupees.

What India earns abroad is the current account’s receipts in the balance of payments: exports of goods and services, income and transfers, remittances among them. The debt service ratio is DBIE’s own column. The cost of foreign money is investment income paid abroad over those receipts; its split into interest, dividends and profits, and profits kept invested comes from the quarterly table (on the BPM6 basis), whose total is within a few per cent of the annual one, so the annual total is shared out in its proportions.

Short-term debt is by original maturity, as DBIE reports it; from March 2005 it includes trade credit of up to 180 days. The payoff date counts from 1 April after the March the debt is read, at the year’s rate of earning. A dollar of the debt in rupees is the debt in rupees over the debt in dollars at end-March.

Left out. DBIE does not give the debt by currency or by time left to repay, or all debt service split into interest and repayment; those are in the Ministry of Finance’s annual report on India’s external debt.