S. Korea’s foreign debt falls by $9.2b in Q2

South Korea’s foreign debt fell by $9.2 billion to $658.3 billion in the April-June quarter, following a $5 billion reduction in the previous quarter, the Bank of Korea (BOK) reported on  Wednesday.

Short-term foreign debt with a maturity of less than one year increased by $0.9 billion to $142.0 billion in the second quarter. However, long-term external liabilities declined by $10.1 billion to $516.3 billion.

As a result, the ratio of short-term foreign debt to total external liabilities increased by 0.4 percentage points to 21.6 per cent at the end of June. The ratio of short-term foreign debt to foreign reserves also rose by 0.8 percentage points to 34.4 per cent.

Net external credit, which is the difference between external credit and foreign debt, decreased by $3.1 billion to $381.5 billion at the end of June.

Attribution: Bank of Korea report

Subediting: Y.Yasser