External debts 2015

At the end of 2015, China's outstanding full-scale external debt (excluding those of Hong Kong, Macao, and Taiwan, the same below) reached USD 1.42 trillion.

With respect to the term structure, the outstanding medium- and long-term external debt was USD 495.6 billion, accounting for 35 percent, while the outstanding short-term external debt was USD 920.6 billion, accounting for 65 percent.

In terms of institutions and departments, the outstanding government debt was USD 111.4 billion in a broad sense, accounting for 8 percent; the outstanding debt of the central bank was USD 43 billion, accounting for 3 percent; the outstanding debt of other deposit-taking companies (banks) was USD 612 billion, accounting for 43 percent; and the outstanding debt of other departments was USD 427.2 billion, accounting for 30 percent. Direct investments: the outstanding debt of inter-company loans was USD 222.6 billion, accounting for 16 percent.

In terms of debt instruments, the balance of loans was USD 321.6 billion, accounting for 23 percent; the balance of trade credits and prepayment was USD 272.1 billion, accounting for 19 percent; the balance of currency and deposits was USD 331.5 billion, accounting for 23 percent; the balance of debt securities was USD 233.2 billion, accounting for 16 percent; and the SDR quota was USD 9.7 billion, accounting for 1 percent. Direct investments: the balance of inter-company loans was USD 222.6 billion, accounting for 16 percent; the balance of other debts was USD 25.5 billion, accounting for 2 percent.

With respect to currency structure, the outstanding external debt in domestic currency (RMB) was USD 656.7, accounting for 46 percent. The outstanding external debt in foreign currencies (including SDR quota) was USD 759.5 billion, accounting for 54 percent. USD debt accounted for 80 percent, EURO debt, 7 percent, JPY debt, 4 percent, and other foreign currency-denominated debt including SDR and HKD accounted for 9 percent of the total outstanding registered external debt in foreign currencies.

Initial calculations reveal that the external debt/GDP ratio (i.e., the ratio of the outstanding external debt to GDP of the current year), the external debt/ export revenue ratio (i.e., the ratio of the outstanding external debt to the export revenue of trade in goods and services of the current year, which is calculated on the basis of the statistical coverage of the balance of payments), and the debt servicing ratio (i.e., the ratio of the sum of the repayment of the principal and interest of medium- and long-term external debt and the payment of the interest of short-term external debt to the export revenue of trade in goods and services of the current year, which is calculated on the basis of the statistical coverage of the balance of payments), and the ratio of short-term external debt to foreign exchange reserves were 13.03 percent, 58 percent, 5.01 percent, and 27.64 percent respectively in 2015. All of these external debt risk indicators were within an internationally-accepted range.

Note:

1. In accordance with the Special Data Dissemination Standard (SDDS) of the IMF, China adjusted the statistical coverage of external debt and disseminated the full-scale data on China's external debt in 2015, including RMB-denominated external debt, which was classified into medium-and long-term external debt and short-term external debt by contract term.

2. Since the external debt based on the full coverage includes external debt in RMB, the external debt risk indicators such as external debt/GDP ratio, the external debt/export revenue ratio, the debt serving ratio and the ratio of short-term external debt to foreign exchange reserves of 2015 rose from the 2013 figures (the original statistical coverage). However, as compared with 2014 (the external debt of 2014 was calculated based on the full coverage to ensure comparability of statistics), the above external debt risk indicators dropped to a certain extent.

3. The internationally-accepted ranges for external debt risk indicators-liability ratio, debt ratio, debt servicing ratio and ratio of short-term external debt to foreign exchange reserves are 20 percent, 100 percent, 20 percent and 100 percent respectively.