Total, short-term external debts declining

The nation¡¯s total and short-term external debts are both declining. The Ministry of Finance and Economy said Monday that the nation¡¯s total external debts stood at US$140.5 billion as of the end of September, down US$1.3 billion from the previous month.

In particular, short-term external debts, which caused fears for another foreign exchange crisis, decreased US$700 million from a month earlier to be worth US$46.8 billion in September. Short-term debts continued to rise for the 10th consecutive month and reached US$47.8 billion last July. However, the figure declined by US$300 million the following month and the fall was greater in September. Long-term external debts came to US$93.7 billion as of the end of September, down US$600 million from a month earlier.

Ministry officials explained that short-term external debts decreased after financial institutions paid back US$400 million in short-term loans and trade-related credits dropped by US$300 million due to the slowdown in the import growth ratio. As a result, short-term debts accounted for 33.3 percent of total external debts in September, down slightly from 33.5 percent reported at the end of August. The ratio of short-term debts to foreign exchange holdings also dropped 1.3 percentage points to 50.6 percent, compared to September.

Meanwhile, in the stock market, the outflow of foreign funds surpassed the inflow by US$930 million in September, but the amount decreased to US$420 million in October. Ministry officials said that as it was reported that the inflow of foreign funds to the local stock market was slightly more than the outflow this month, it¡¯s unlikely there will be sudden exodus of foreign funds at the moment.