Mumbai, Sep 30 (IANS): India's external debt for the quarter ended June 2020 declined on a sequential and year-on-year basis, official data showed on Wednesday.

The external debt during the period under review declined to $554.5 billion from $558.4 billion reported for the quarter ended March 2020 and from $556.9 billion recorded for the like period of the previous year.

"At end June 2020, India's external debt was placed at $554.5 billion, recording a decrease of $3.9 billion over its level at end March 2020," the RBI said in a statement on India's external debt as at the end of June 2020.

"The external debt to GDP ratio increased to 21.8 per cent at end June 2020 from 20.6 per cent at end March 2020."

However, valuation loss due to the depreciation of the US dollar vis-a-vis major currencies such as euro, yen and SDR2 were placed at $0.7 billion.

"Excluding the valuation effect, the decrease in external debt would have been $4.5 billion instead of $3.9 billion at end June 2020 over end March 2020," the statement said.