SEOUL, Feb. 25 (Xinhua) -- South Korea's foreign debt grew in 2025 due to an expansion in both short- and long-term debts, central bank data showed Wednesday.
Foreign debt gained 94.0 billion U.S. dollars from a year earlier to 766.9 billion dollars at the end of 2025, rebounding from a reduction of 4.4 billion dollars in the previous year, according to the Bank of Korea (BOK).
Short-term foreign debt with a maturity of less than one year swelled 32.5 billion dollars to 179.0 billion dollars in 2025, while long-term external liability expanded 61.5 billion dollars to 587.9 billion dollars.
The ratio of short-term foreign debt to total external liability advanced 1.6 percentage points from a year earlier to 23.3 percent at the end of 2025.
The ratio of short-term foreign debt to foreign reserves rose 6.6 percentage points to 41.8 percent.
Net external credit, or external credit minus foreign debt, ran to 369.9 billion dollars at the end of 2025, down 17.2 billion dollars from a year earlier. ■
