Foreign debt keeps on rising
By Xiao Zhang (China Daily)
Updated: 2004-06-30 08:38

China's foreign debt continued to grow in the first quarter of this year because of its rapid economic growth and strong foreign trade performance, the State Administration of Foreign Exchange (SAFE) said yesterday.

Outstanding foreign debts stood at US$202.3 billion at the end of March, up 4.49 per cent from the same period last year, said SAFE.

New borrowings from overseas, excluding trade credits, totalled US$24.4 billion for the first three months of this year.

The outstanding volume of long and medium-term liabilities were US$120 billion at the end of March, or nearly 60 per cent of total outstanding foreign debts, while the rest was short-term liabilities.

"Overall, the continued growth in the size of China's foreign debts is mainly a result of factors such as the rapid growth in the domestic economy and foreign trade," SAFE said in a press release.

The interest rate differentials between Chinese and international markets, which put persistent pressure on the local currency, the renminbi, to appreciate, was another "negligible" force behind the growth of foreign debts, it said.

Short-term foreign debts have grown relatively fast during recent months as domestic financial institutions increasingly preferred US dollar loans to renminbi borrowings, but regulators have insisted the current level of China's short-term foreign liabilities poses no danger to its financial security, given the nation's huge foreign exchange reserves.

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