Chinese overseas lending / IND
India: debt owed to China
In 2021, India is estimated to have owed China $1.22bn, equal to 0.0% of its GDP, which ranks it 57 of 126 borrowers in the panel by dollars owed. The estimated stock peaked at $5.35bn in 2015.
The estimated stock, 2000 to 2021
The largest single-year move in the estimated stock is 2013, when it rose by $1.10bn.
Source: Horn, Reinhart and Trebesch, China’s Overseas Lending. Selection: estimated stock owed to China by India, by year and instrument, 2000 to 2021. Zeros are estimated zeros (no known loans outstanding), not missing values. Methodology
Historical loan records from the 2021 release
These records come from the 2021 HRT Mendeley replication release, not the November 2025 refreshed stock panel charted above. The refresh uses the updated Franz, Horn, Parks, Reinhart and Trebesch methodology, so this table cannot be reconciled to the chart. The earlier release marks 9 loan-level records for India as part of its debt-estimate sample, spanning 2008 to 2013. Comparable commitments are available for 9 of those loans and sum to $4.90bn. These are gross commitments, not outstanding debt stocks. The stock methodology applies disbursement and amortisation profiles, with imputation where loan terms are missing, so the commitment sum must not be compared with the stock above. See the methodology. Terms are sparse by source: interest rate appears on 0 loans, grace period on 0, maturity on 2, any of the three on 2, and all three together on 0. The earlier file also carries 5 additional project rows for India outside that sample, so they are not included in this table.
| Year | Project | Commitment, USD | Commitment, source currency | Terms | Creditor | Type |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2013 | Tiroda Thermal Power Project with ICBC ID: IND_14 · Source: BU Energy | $167m | n/a | rate n/a | grace n/a | maturity n/a | China Development Bank (CDB) State-owned policy bank | Loan Commercial · borrower Private sector |
| 2010 | China Datang loans $1.4 billion for a thermal power project ID: IND_9 · Source: AidData | $1.40bn | USD 1,400,000,000 | rate n/a | grace n/a | maturity n/a | China Datang State-owned enterprise | Loan Commercial · borrower Private sector |
| 2010 | Sasan UMPP, with Sinosure ID: IND_12 · Source: BU Energy | $1.10bn | n/a | rate n/a | grace n/a | maturity n/a | China Development Bank (CDB), China Export-Import Bank (Ex-Im) State-owned policy bank | Loan Commercial · borrower Private sector |
| 2010 | CDB Commits $600M USD in Export Credits to Reliance ID: IND_6 · Source: AidData, BU Energy | $600m | USD 600,000,000 | rate n/a | grace n/a | maturity 10y | China Development Bank (CDB) State-owned policy bank | Loan Commercial · borrower Private sector |
| 2010 | CDB signs 400 mln USD deal with ICICI Bank for facility management ID: IND_7 · Source: AidData | $400m | USD 400,000,000 | rate n/a | grace n/a | maturity n/a | China Development Bank (CDB) State-owned policy bank | Loan Commercial · borrower Private sector |
| 2010 | Lanco Amarkantak Thermal Power Project 3&4 ID: IND_11 · Source: AidData, BU Energy | $200m | USD 200,000,000 | rate n/a | grace n/a | maturity n/a | China Development Bank (CDB), China Export-Import Bank (Ex-Im) State-owned policy bank | Loan Commercial · borrower Private sector |
| 2010 | CLP Jhajjar Power Plant ID: IND_8 · Source: BU Energy | $188m | n/a | rate n/a | grace n/a | maturity n/a | China Development Bank (CDB), China Export-Import Bank (Ex-Im) State-owned policy bank | Loan Commercial · borrower Private sector |
| 2009 | China extends loan of $98m to ICICI Bank of India ID: IND_4 · Source: AidData | $98m | USD 98,000,000 | rate n/a | grace n/a | maturity n/a | China Export-Import Bank (Ex-Im) State-owned policy bank | Loan loan type n/a · borrower Private sector |
| 2008 | CDB loans $750m to India's Reliance Communications ID: IND_3 · Source: AidData | $750m | USD 750,000,000 | rate n/a | grace n/a | maturity 10y | China Development Bank (CDB) State-owned policy bank | Loan Commercial · borrower Private sector |
Source: Horn, Reinhart and Trebesch, China’s Overseas Lending (2021 Mendeley replication loan file). Selection: 2021 replication loan records mapped to India and flagged DebtEstimateSample = 1 in that release. This is an earlier source universe, not the records used for the November 2025 refreshed stock panel. CommitmentUSD is a gross commitment flow and is not comparable to the charted stock. Commitment stays in its source currency, and ProjectDescription is rendered as free-text data from the file. Methodology
Against what India reports owing to all creditors
India reported $611.99bn of total external debt to all creditors in 2021, of which $205.28bn is public and publicly guaranteed. The China estimate is 0.2% of the reported external total and 0.2% of the reported public and guaranteed stock. These are ratios of two different measurements, one estimated and one borrower-reported, and they are not a share of a single consistent total.
| Measure, 2021 | Estimated, owed China | Reported, all creditors | Ratio, % |
|---|---|---|---|
| Total external debt | $1.22bn | $611.99bn | 0.2% |
| Public and publicly guaranteed | $366m | $205.28bn | 0.2% |
Source: Horn, Reinhart and Trebesch, China’s Overseas Lending (estimated stocks), and World Bank International Debt Statistics, borrower-reported via the Debtor Reporting System (all-creditor stocks). Selection: estimated external and PPG stock owed to China in 2021 against India's reported DT.DOD.DECT.CD and DT.DOD.DPPG.CD for the same year. Drawn swap balances are excluded from the estimated column: they are a central-bank liability the Debtor Reporting System's long-term-debt concepts do not carry. Methodology