Depreciating dollar has pushed up the country's external debt to 155 billion dollars at the close of 2006-07 from 142.7 billion dollars in the previous year.

"India's external debt at the end of March 2007 increased by 28.6 billion dollars over the end-March 2006 level to reach a level of 155 billion dollars," RBI said in a statement on Friday.

It further said the positive valuation impact, reflecting the depreciation of dollar vis-a-vis other major international currencies, has added to the outstanding debt stock of the country.

Among various components of the external debt, External Commercial Borrowings stood at 42.8 billion dollars recording an increase of 59.2 per cent followed by trade credit and NRI deposits. Multilateral and bilateral debts also witnessed moderate increase during 2006-07.

It said the short-term trade credit witnessed a sharp increase to 3.3 billion dollars (37.7 per cent) underpinned by growth in imports during the year.

Referring to debt sustainability, the RBI said external debt to GDP ratio at the end of March increased to 16.4 per cent from 15.8 per cent in 2005-06.

According to RBI, the ratio of the short-term debt to the total debt rose to 7.7 per cent from 6.9 per cent at the end of March 2006.

The share of concessional debt declined to 25.7 per cent toward the close last fiscal as compared to 31.2 per cent in March 2006, it said.