China’s foreign debts total $751 billion

BEIJING, Jun 26 – China’s outstanding external debts totaled 751.26 billion U.S. dollars by the end of March, the country’s foreign exchange regulator said Tuesday.

In break down, medium and long-term foreign debts totaled 193.56 billion U.S. dollars, while short-term debts stood at 557.7 billion U.S. dollars, figures released by the State Administration of Foreign Exchange show.

Of the registered external debts, which stood at 480.16 billion U.S. dollars, 76.67 percent were U.S. dollar-denominated debts, while 7.05 percent and 8.23 percent were yen- and euro-denominated debts, respectively.

In the first quarter, China repaid principals totaling 5.99 billion U.S. dollars for medium and long-term debts, up 30.25 percent year-on-year. And the interest paid during the period totaled 559 million U.S. dollars, up 21.52 percent, according to the data.

The foreign debts exclude those of the country’s Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (SAR), Macao SAR, and Taiwan.