The foreign exchange bureau: our country's economy has started well and the scale of foreign debt has increased

People's Daily Online, Beijing, July 3. According to the official website of the State Administration of Foreign Exchange, in the first quarter of 2023, the scale of our country's foreign debt has rebounded, and the structure has remained basically stable. As of the end of March 2023, the balance of our country's full-caliber (including local and foreign currencies) foreign debt was 2.4909 trillion US dollars, an increase of 38.10 billion US dollars from the end of 2022, an increase of 2%. From the perspective of currency structure, the proportion of local currency foreign debt was 45%, the same as that of the end of 2022; from the perspective of term structure, medium and long-term foreign debt accounted for 44%, a decrease of 1 percentage point from the end of 2022.

Wang Chunying, deputy director and spokesperson of the State Administration of Foreign Exchange, said that our country's economy has started well, and the scale of foreign debt has increased. In the first quarter of 2023, our country's economy has achieved a good start, and social production and financing demand have stabilized and rebounded. Driven by the growth of bank money and deposit balances, the scale of foreign debt in our country has increased.

"It is expected that the scale of our country's foreign debt will continue to remain stable in the future. As the pace of monetary policy tightening in major developed economies slows down, the spillover impact will gradually weaken. At the same time, our country adheres to the general tone of seeking progress while maintaining stability, and the overall economic operation rebounds, providing fundamental support for the stability of our country's foreign debt scale. In the next step, the State Administration of Foreign Exchange will continue to promote cross-border trade and investment and financing facilitation to serve the high-quality development of the real economy." Wang Chunying said.