The Chinese State Administration of Foreign Exchange (SAFE) announced in Beijing on October 29 that by the end of June, the outstanding amount of China's registered foreign debt was US$148.77 billion, an increase of US$2.73 billion or 1.9 percent up over the end of last year.

Statistics released by the SAFE show that among the total foreign debt, US$131.67 billion were medium and long-term, up US$2.97 billion from the end of last year; while short-term debt was US$17.1 billion US dollars, down US$240 million.

In the first six months of this year, China borrowed new debt of US$13.5 billion, and repaid principals of US$12.19 billion.

The outstanding amount of China's sovereign debt was US$42.97 billion, increasing by 3.2 percent over the end of last year; the debt borrowed by domestic financial institutions was US$41.96 billion, basically the same as the end of last year; the debt borrowed by foreign-funded enterprises was US$47.13 billion, up 4.2 percent; the debt of domestic enterprises was US$14.96 billion, down 3.5 percent; while the debt of other institutions was US$1.75 billion, up 4.8 percent.