AKIPRESS.COM - China's foreign debt reached $863.2 billion by the end of 2013, up 17% compared to 2012, Xinhua news agency reported 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 (SAFE) said in a statement on its website.
Of the total outstanding external debt, registered external debt reached 526.7 billion U.S. dollars, while the balance of trade credit between businesses amounted to 336.5 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 676.6 billion U.S. dollars, while long- and medium-term outstanding external debt came in at 186.5 billion U.S. dollars.