Govt liabilities at Rs 83 tn in Dec quarter, public debt accounts for 89 pct

Total liabilities of the government increased to Rs 83.40 lakh crore at the end of the December 2018 quarter from Rs 82.03 lakh crore in the previous quarter of the current fiscal, latest data on public debt showed Friday. Public debt accounted for 89.5 per cent of total outstanding liabilities at the end of December 2018 with internal debt accounting for 83.3 per cent share.

Nearly 29.27 per cent of the outstanding dated securities had a residual maturity of fewer than five years. The holding pattern indicates a share of 40.5 per cent for commercial banks and 24.6 per cent for insurance companies by end-December 2018. G-Sec yields have shown a softening trend in the third quarter of the fiscal with the decrease in weighted average yield of primary issuances to 7.82 per cent from 8.01 per cent in the last quarter, reflecting several developments such as strengthening in the value of the rupee against the dollar and the RBI injecting durable liquidity in the system through OMO (purchase), said the Quarterly Report on Debt Management, released by the finance ministry.

During the October-December 2018 period, the central government issued dated securities worth Rs 1.27 lakh crore as against Rs 1.64 lakh crore in the year-ago period. The temporary cash flow mismatches were bridged through issuances of cash management bills amounting to Rs 45,000 crore during the quarter.

(With inputs from agencies.)