Short-term foreign debts rise

As the government¡¯s restrictive policy against the short-term foreign currency denominated debts has reaped no clear results, the debts with less than year maturity is sharply increasing. Consequently worrying voices are getting louder as the rise in the short-term foreign debts could threaten the economic administration.

According to Finance and Economy Ministry¡¯s report on the outlook of the total foreign debts as of July on September 5(Tuesday), the total foreign debts at the end of July reached 142.1 billion dollars, an increase of 1.1 billion dollars from June.

Especially the long-term foreign debts with a maturity of over a year, reached 94.3 billion dollars, an increase of 300 million dollars in July, while the short-term foreign debts increased by 800 million dollars during the month, reaching 47.8 billion dollars. The short-term foreign debts have consistently risen since October last year for 10 months in a row. Tallying up the short-term debts and the long-term debts that are coming due within a year period, the total liquidable foreign debts in July reached 64.5 billion dollars, increasing by 600 million dollars in a month.

From the total foreign debts, the short-term debts in July accounted from 33.6%, the highest since March 1988(34.7%). The weight of the short-term debts have been snowballing from ¡âthe end of December last year at 27.9% to ¡âthe end of March this year at 30.3% ¡âand the end of June 6 at 33.4%, consistently increasing for 7 months in a row.

Kwon Soon-Hwal shkwon@donga.com