SEOUL, Aug. 20 (Xinhua) -- South Korea's foreign debt kept growing for two straight quarters owing to higher debt in both short and long terms, central bank data showed Wednesday.
Foreign debt expanded 52.1 billion U.S. dollars to 735.6 billion dollars in the April-June quarter after increasing 10.5 billion dollars in the previous quarter, according to the Bank of Korea (BOK).
Short-term foreign debt with a maturity of less than one year climbed 17.7 billion dollars to 167.1 billion dollars in the second quarter, while long-term external liability mounted 34.4 billion dollars to 568.5 billion dollars.
The ratio of short-term foreign debt to the total external liability went up 0.9 percentage points from three months earlier to 22.7 percent at the end of June.
The ratio of short-term foreign debt to foreign reserves gained 4.3 percentage points to 40.7 percent.
Net external credit, or external credit minus foreign debt, ran to 357.2 billion dollars at the end of June, down 10.7 billion dollars from three months earlier. ■
