China's external debt on the rise

BEIJING - China's outstanding foreign debt had hit $863.2 billion by the end of 2013, up 17 percent from the figure in the previous year, data from the country's forex regulator showed on Monday.

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The amount does not include the outstanding external debt of the Hong Kong and Macao special administrative regions or that of Taiwan, the State Administration of Foreign Exchange (SAFE) said in a statement on its website.

Of the total outstanding external debt, registered external debt reached $526.7 billion, while the balance of trade credit between businesses amounted to $336.5 billion.

Most of the debt owed to foreign creditors resulted from short-term borrowing, as outstanding external debt with a term of one year or less amounted to $676.6 billion, while long- and medium-term outstanding external debt came in at $186.5 billion.

In terms of currency structure, debt denominated in US dollars accounted for 79.6 percent of the outstanding registered external debt, and that in euros and Japanese yen accounted for 5.54 percent and 5.02 percent, respectively.

Preliminary calculation showed China's foreign liability ratio of 9.4 percent, debt-to-GDP ratio of 35.59 percent, and debt-service ratio of 1.57 percent were all were within the internationally recognized safety range, the SAFE said.

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