China's external debt nears $737 bln

China's outstanding external debt hit 736.99 billion U.S. dollars by the end of 2012, the country's foreign exchange regulator revealed Wednesday.

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.

The liability ratio, or external debt against the gross domestic product, stood at 8.96 percent, far below the international warning line of 20 percent, the statement said.

Of the total outstanding external debt, registered external debt reached 445.49 billion U.S. dollars, while the balance of trade credit between enterprises amounted to 291.5 billion U.S. dollars.

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 540.93 billion U.S. dollars.

Long- and mid-term external debt outstanding amounted to 196.06 billion U.S. dollars.

In terms of currency structure, debt in U.S. dollars accounted for 77.83 percent of the outstanding registered external debt. Debt in euros accounted for 6.58 percent, while debt in yen took up 7.37 percent.

According to SAFE data, China accrued new mid- and long-term external debt amounting to 39.57 billion U.S. dollars last year. The country repaid 33.02 billion U.S. dollars in principal and 2.56 billion U.S. dollars in interest last year.