China's foreign debt up 15.68% in 2007

BEIJING, April 9 (Xinhua) -- China's foreign debt reached 373.62 billion U.S. dollars at the end of 2007, up 15.68 percent over the previous year, the State Administration of Foreign Exchange (SAFE) announced on Wednesday.

China's medium and long-term borrowing totaled 153.53 billion U.S. dollars at the end of last year, an increase of 14.17 billion U.S. dollars, or 10.17 percent, according to the SAFE.

Meanwhile, the country's short-term borrowing increased 36.46 billion U.S. dollars to 220.08 billion U.S. dollars, up 19.85 percent.

Of the total external debt, 34.89 billion U.S. dollars was the sovereign debt; foreign invested enterprises accounted for 74 billion U.S. dollars; and the amount for foreign financial institutions in China was 46.31 billion U.S. dollars.

Preliminary statistics showed all of China's foreign debt indices were under the international standard safety line in 2007,the SAFE said.