India's external debt remains within manageable limit at $495.7 bn: Govt

India's external debt has remained within manageable limits as indicated by the external debt indicators, and the country is not among the world's top debtors, the government said on Friday.

In a written reply to the Lok Sabha, Minister of State for Finance P Radhakrishnan said that India's external debt stock stood at $495.7 billion at quarter ending September 2017.

"The per capita external debt of India stood at $409.3 at quarter ending September 2017... India's rank stood at 26th position in quarter ending June 2017," Radhakrishnan said.

He added that the prudent external debt management policy of the government has helped contain the rise in external debt and maintaining a comfortable external debt position.

"The policy continues to focus on monitoring long and short-term debt, raising sovereign loans on concessional terms with longer maturities, regulating external commercial borrowings and rationalising interest rates on Non-Resident Indian deposits," he noted.