October 07, 2008

China\'s 2007 outstanding external debt up by 7% YoY

China's state administration of foreign exchange has announced that outstanding external debt, excluding Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan, stood at USD 345.7 billion as of the end of September 2007 up by 7.03% YoY or USD 22.7 billion as compared with the end of 2006.

During January to September 2007 period, outstanding medium and long term external debt rose by 6.23% YoY to USD 148 billion, while short term external debt, which accounted for 57% of the total, was USD 197.7 billion up by 7.64%.

The statistics showed that China had incurred medium and long term foreign debt of USD 25.47 billion from January to September 2007 period up by 55.6% YoY or USD 7.65 billion over January to September 2006 period. During that time, it paid USD 14.76 billion of principal and USD 2.67 billion of interest on its debt up by 18.33% and 44.19% from the corresponding period last year.