WASHINGTON : India's public debt ratio, which remarkably remained stable at around 70% of the GDP since 1991, is projected to jump by 17 percentage points to nearly 90% because of increase in public spending due to COVID-19, the IMF said on Wednesday."In our projections, the increase in public spending, in response to COVID-19, and the fall in tax revenues and economic activity, will make public debt jump up by 17 percentage points to almost 90% of GDP," Vitor Gaspar, Director of the IMF's Fiscal Affairs Department told PTI."Going forward it is projected to stabilise in 2021, before slowly declining up to the end of the projection period, in 2025.