Mumbai, Dec 07: The total foreign claims of Indian banks on countries other than India rose further to USD 23 billion as on June 2003 compared to USD 20.4 billion registered in the same period previous fiscal, according to the Reserve Bank of India. The total foreign claims of the Bank for International Settlements (BIS) reporting countries increased from USD 12,419.3 billion in June 2002 to USD 14,527.4 billion in the period under review, RBI said in its December bulletin released here today.

The share of total international claims of the 93 BIS reporting countries, including 57 Indian banks, in total foreign claims, decreased whereas that of local claims in local currencies increased and "the same is true in case of Indian banks too," it said.

RBI said that the total foreign claims on India stood at USD 45.8 billion, which was almost double the claims of Indian banks on other countries (USD 23 billion).

"This huge difference was because the local claims in local currencies of foreign banks` offices in India (at USD 23.6 bn) were much larger than that of Indian banks` foreign offices (at USD 3.8 bn)," the central bank pointed out.

In line with other countries, Indian banks also preferred their international claims in "long term" lending/investment, which can be seen from the increase in the share of "long term" claims by 5.9 per cent while the share of "short term" claims decreased by 1.9 per cent during June 2002 to June 2003, the data showed.

Bureau Report