China's outstanding external debts, excluding those of Hong Kong, Macao, and Taiwan, amounted to $428.65 billion at the end of 2009, the State Administration of Foreign Exchange (SAFE) announced Tuesday.
Outstanding long- and medium-term external debts stood at $169.39 billion, accounting for 39.52 percent of the total, while outstanding short-term debts stood at $259.26 billion, or 60.48 percent, the SAFE said.
The outstanding registered external debt was $266.95 billion, with US dollar-denominated debt accounting for 67.76 percent, Japanese yen debt 11.89 percent, euro debt 6.38 percent, and other debts 13.97 percent. The outstanding trade credit stood at $161.70 billion.
The outstanding sovereign debt borrowed by ministries under the State Council, China's Cabinet, totaled $36.86 billion, or 13.81 percent of China's total registered external debt in 2009. The outstanding debt of domestic financial institutions stood at $94.08 billion, accounting for 35.24 percent, and that of foreign-funded enterprises was $93.18 billion, or 34.91 percent. The outstanding debt of foreign financial institutions in China reached $38.34 billion, or 14.36 percent.
In 2009, the newly -added long- and medium-term external debts dropped by 38.18 percent from a year earlier to $22.45 billion. Repayment of principal was $34.19 billion, up $10.90 billion, or 46.78 percent, from 2008; interest payments for long- and medium-term external debt totaled $3.63 billion, down $525 million, or 12.64 percent, from the previous year.
China's external debt service ratio was 2.87 percent in 2009, the SAFE said.
