China's external debt tops $785b

BEIJING -- China's outstanding external debt increased by $34 billion in the second quarter to reach $785.17 billion by the end of June this year, the country's foreign exchange regulator said Monday.

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 said in a statement on its website.

Of the total outstanding external debt, registered external debt reached $495.07 billion, while the balance of trade credit between enterprises amounted to $290.1 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 $588.22 billion, or 75 percent of the total, up from 74.2 percent at the end of March, according to SAFE.

Long- and medium-term external debt outstanding amounted to $196.95 billion.

In terms of currency structure, debt in US dollars accounted for 77.77 percent of the outstanding registered external debt, up 1.1 percentage points from that of the end of March.

Debt in euros accounted for 7.51 percent , down from 8.23 percent in March; while debt in yen took up 6.99 percent, compared with 7.05 percent in March.

According to SAFE data, China accrued medium- and long-term external debt amounting to $21.25 billion in the first half of the year, as well as repaid $14.78 billion in principal and $1.2 billion in interest during the period.