Beijing: China's outstanding foreign debt rose to USD 891.41 billion by March end, marking a 3.3 percent increase compared to last year, country's forex regulator said on Thursday.
The foreign debt touched 5.44 trillion yuan (USD 891.41 billion), or 175.1 billion Yuan more than that at the end of last year, it said.
It excludes outstanding external debt of special administrative regions of Hong Kong and Macao or that of Taiwan, the State Administration of Foreign Exchange said.
With about USD 3.94 trillion, China has world's highest foreign exchanges reserves but there were concerns regarding local governments?debt as it crossed a whopping USD 3.4 trillion last year.
Of the total outstanding external debt, registered external debt reached 3.48 trillion yuan, while the balance of trade credit between businesses amounted to 1.96 trillion yuan, state-run Xinhua news agency reported.
Most of the debt owed to foreign creditors emanated from short-term borrowing, as outstanding external debt with a term of one year or less amounted to 4.25 trillion yuan, while long- and medium-term outstanding external debt came in at 1. 19 trillion yuan.
In terms of currency structure, debt denominated in US dollars accounted for 81.32 percent of the outstanding registered external debt, that in Japanese yen makes 4.46 percent and that in euros amounts to 5.26 percent of the total.
