Q1 External Debt at $667.5 Billion... Decreased by $5.1 Billion from End of Last Year
MoEF Announces 'Q1 External Claims and Debts Trends'
In the first quarter of this year, South Korea's external debt amounted to 667.5 billion dollars, a decrease of 5.1 billion dollars compared to 672.5 billion dollars at the end of last year.
According to the "1st Quarter External Claims and Debts Trends" announced by the Ministry of Economy and Finance on the 22nd, short-term external debt with a maturity of less than one year was 141 billion dollars, an increase of 0.3 billion dollars compared to the end of last year, while long-term external debt (maturity over one year) was 526.5 billion dollars, a decrease of 5.4 billion dollars.
By sector, banks increased their external debt by 0.7 billion dollars, and other sectors including non-bank, public, and private enterprises increased by 3.0 billion dollars, whereas government and central bank external debt decreased by 7.1 billion dollars and 1.5 billion dollars respectively.
External claims stood at 1.0521 trillion dollars, an increase of 7.5 billion dollars (0.7%) compared to 1.0445 trillion dollars at the end of last year. Net external claims, calculated by subtracting external debt from external claims, were 384.6 billion dollars, up 12.6 billion dollars (3.4%) from 372.0 billion dollars at the end of last year.
The proportion of short-term external debt to total external debt was 21.1%, down 5.5 percentage points from 26.6% a year ago, and the ratio of short-term external debt to foreign exchange reserves was 33.6%, continuing the overall downward trend since the first quarter of last year (42.0%).
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An official from the Ministry of Economy and Finance stated, "As uncertainty over major countries' monetary policies continues and geopolitical issues such as instability in the Middle East could increase volatility in international financial markets, we will closely monitor external debt trends based on close cooperation among related agencies."
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