South Korea’s foreign debts grow to $418.6 bn
August 21st, 2012 - 2:02 pm ICT by IANSSeoul, Aug 21 (IANS) South Korea’s foreign debts grew to $418.6 billion in the second quarter of this year as lenders increased their short-term borrowing from overseas, the central bank said Tuesday.
Foreign currency debts reached $418.6 billion as of June-end, up $6.1 billion from three months earlier, according to the Bank of Korea (BOK).
Short-term foreign debts that mature in one year or less expanded $5.6 billion on-quarter to $141.4 billion in the three months ending June 30 as local lenders increased their short-term borrowing, reported Xinhua citing the central bank.
Long-term external liabilities inched up $0.5 billion on-quarter to $277.2 billion in the second quarter due to a rise in foreign investment into monetary stabilization bonds (MSB) and corporate bonds that offset a fall in investment into government bonds by foreigners.
The nation’s foreign debt soundness worsened more or less due to growth in short-term debts.
The ratio of short-term foreign debts to foreign reserves advanced 2.3 percentage points on- quarter to 45.3 percent as of the end of June, while the rate of short-term external debts to the total foreign debts rose 0.9 percentage point to 33.8 percent.
The capability to service foreign debts was also aggravated. The country’s external credit decreased $2.4 billion on- quarter to $506.7 billion in the second quarter, sending the net external credit, or external assets minus external liabilities, to $88.1 billion as of end-June, down $8.4 billion from three months before.
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Tags: bok, corporate bonds, external assets, external debts, external liabilities, foreign currency, foreign debt, foreign debts, foreign investment, foreigners, government bonds, monetary stabilization, percentage point, percentage points, second quarter, seoul, soundness, south korea, term debts, xinhua