Foreign debts on rise as economy expands
By Zhang Dingmin (China Daily)
Updated: 2006-01-02 07:33

China's foreign debts climbed further in the first three quarters last year as economic growth kept on a fast track.

The State Administration of Foreign Exchange (SAFE) said on Saturday China's foreign debts (excluding those of Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan) totalled US$267.46 billion at the end of September in 2005, up 8.07 per cent from the end of the previous year.

While outstanding mid and long-term foreign debts dropped by 0.65 per cent compared to the end of 2004 to US$123.49 billion, short-term debts, or those due to be repaid within one year, leapt by 16.8 per cent to US$143.97 billion at the end of last September, extending a trend that has alerted the authorities.

New foreign debts in the first nine months of last year stood at US$208 billion, up 67.63 per cent on a year-on-year basis.

The percentage of short-term debts within the total of foreign debts increased from 53.1 per cent at the end of last June to 53.8 per cent by the end of September, a trend the authorities have said deserves attention.

Analysts have said a high percentage of short-term foreign debts poses a potential threat to a nation's foreign debt security, although China's hefty foreign exchange reserves make the possibility of any imminent crisis unlikely.

The administration said the major reason for the rapid increase of short-term foreign debts was trade-related debts, but did not elaborate. On the back of China's fast-growing foreign trade, trade credits, mainly delayed payments by importers and early payments by foreign importers, rose rapidly.

The administration said in a report released last November that trade credits totalled US$65.4 billion at the end of 2004, or 26.4 per cent of outstanding foreign debt, but the figures climbed to US$75.5 billion - 28.4 per cent at the end of June last year.

The growing activity of foreign banks operating in China has also contributed to the trend in increased foreign borrowings, while persistent expectations of the revaluation of the renminbi have prompted a growing number of foreign-invested companies to take up foreign debts instead of taking renminbi loans from local banks, the report said.

(China Daily 01/02/2006 page2)