China reports continued external debt stability in Q3

BEIJING, Dec. 31 (Xinhua) -- China's total outstanding external debt stood at 2.37 trillion U.S. dollars at the end of September, indicating overall stability in the third quarter, data from the country's forex regulator showed on Wednesday.

Its external debt scale decreased slightly, with a generally stable currency structure and optimized maturity structure, said Li Bin, deputy head of the State Administration of Foreign Exchange.

At the end of September, local currency-denominated external debt accounted for 51.9 percent of the total, which was down 0.2 percentage points from the end of June.

In terms of maturity structure, medium and long-term external debt accounted for 42.5 percent of the total, up 0.1 percentage points from the end of June. ■