External debts 2020

As at the end of 2020,China recorded 15.665 trillion yuan in outstanding external debt denominated in both domestic and foreign currencies (equivalent to USD 2400.8 billion,excluding those of Hong Kong SAR, Macao SAR, and Taiwan province of China, the same below).

In terms of maturity structure, the outstanding medium-and long-term external debt was 7075.8 billion yuan (USD 1084.4 billion), accounting for 45 percent; while the outstanding short-term external debt was 8589.2 billion yuan (USD 1316.4 billion), taking up 55 percent, including 39 percent trade-related credit.

In terms of institutional sectors, the outstanding debt of general government totaled 2476 billion yuan (USD 379.5 billion), accounting for 16 percent; the outstanding debt of the central bank totaled 248.7 billion yuan (USD 38.1 billion), accounting for 2 percent; the outstanding debt of banks totaled 7124 billion yuan (USD 1091.8 billion), accounting for 46 percent; the outstanding debt of other sectors (including inter-company lending under direct investments) totaled 5816.3 billion yuan (USD 891.4 billion), accounting for 36 percent.

In terms of debt instruments, the balance of loans was 2872.9 billion yuan (USD 440.3 billion), accounting for 18 percent; the outstanding trade credit and prepayment was 2426.6 billion yuan (USD 371.9 billion), accounting for 15.5 percent; the outstanding currency and deposits was 3378.4 billion yuan (USD 517.7 billion), accounting for 22 percent; the outstanding debt securities was 4741.5 billion yuan (USD 726.7 billion), accounting for 30 percent; the Special Drawing Rights (SDR) allocation amounted to 65.7 billion yuan (USD 10.1 billion), accounting for 0.5 percent; the balance of inter-company lending under direct investments totaled 1848.6 billion yuan (USD 283.3 billion), accounting for 12 percent; and the balance of other debt liabilities was 331.3 billion yuan (USD 50.8 billion), accounting for 2 percent.

With respect to currency structures, the outstanding external debt in domestic currency totaled 6531.6 billion yuan (USD 1001 billion), accounting for 42 percent; the outstanding external debt in foreign currencies (including SDR allocation) totaled 9133.4 billion yuan (USD 1399.8 billion), accounting for 58 percent.In the outstanding registered external debt in foreign currencies, the USD debt accounted for 84 percent, the Euro debt accounted for 8 percent, the HKD debt accounted for 4 percent,the JPY debt accounted for 2 percent, the SDR and other foreign currency-denominated external debt accounted for 2 percent.

As at the end of 2020，the liability ratio was 16.3 percent, the debt ratio was 87.9 percent, the debt servicing ratio was 6.5 percent, and the ratio of short-term external debt to foreign exchange reserves was 40.9 percent. China’s major external debt indicators were all within the internationally recognized thresholds, indicating that the external debt risk is controllable.

In addition, SAFE revised China’s outstanding external debt data from the end of 2019 to the end of September 2020 based on the latest data of foreign-invested enterprises’ distributed but unrepatriated profits, and released it in the "Data and Statistics" column of the SAFE’s official website.

Definition of terms and interpretations

External debt classification by term structure. There are two methods to classify the external debt by term structure. One ison the basis of the contract term, i.e. it is classified as medium- and long-term external debt if the contract term is over one year, and classified as short-term external debt if the contract term is one year or less; the other is on the basis of the remaining term, i.e., on the basis of the contract term classification method above, the medium- and long-term external debt due within one year is classified as short-term external debt. In this news release, external debt is divided into medium- and long-term external debt and short-term external debt based on the contract term.

Trade-related creditis a broad concept. In addition to trade credit and prepayment, it also involves other kinds of credit provided for trade activities. As it is defined,trade-related credit includes trade credit and prepayment, bank trade financing, short-term notes related to trade, and so forth. In particular, trade credit and prepayment refer to external liability arising from directly extending credit between the seller and buyer of goods transactions, specifically transactions between residents in the Chinese Mainland and overseas non-residents (including non-residents in Hong Kong SAR, Macao SAR, and Taiwan Province), i.e., the debt incurred due to the difference between the time of payment and the time of the goods ownership transfer, which include credit directly provided by the supplier (e.g., the overseas exporter) for goods and services, and advance payments made by buyers(e.g., overseas importers) for goods, services, and on-going business (or business to be undertaken). Bank trade financing refers to trade related loans that offered by a third party(e.g., banks) to exporters or importers, for instance, loans extended by foreign financial institutions or export credit agencies to buyers.

Liability ratio refers to the ratio of outstanding external debt as of the end of the year to the GDP for the year. Debt ratio refers to the ratio of the outstanding external debt as of the end of the year to the export revenue from trade in goods and services for the year. Debt servicing ratio refers to the ratio of the repayment of the principal and payment of interest on external debt for the year (the sum of the repayment of the principal and payment of interest on medium- and long-term external debt and the payment of the interest of short-term external debt) to the export revenue from trade in goods and services for the year. The internationally recognized thresholds 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.