South Korea's Foreign Debt Falls in 2023
Foreign debt came to 663.6 billion U.S. dollars at the end of December in 2023, down 1.6 billion dollars from a year earlier, according to the Bank of Korea (BOK).
Short-term foreign debt with a maturity of less than one year diminished 30.3 billion dollars to 136.2 billion dollars last year, but long-term external liability gained 28.7 billion dollars to 527.4 billion dollars.
The ratio of short-term foreign debt to the total external liability retreated 4.5 percentage points from a year earlier to 20.5 percent at the end of December.
It continued to slide for the third consecutive year, marking the lowest since relevant data began to be compiled in 1994.
The ratio of short-term foreign debt to foreign reserves dropped 6.9 percentage points to 32.4 percent.
Net external credit, or external credit minus foreign debt, added 7.7 billion dollars to 364.2 billion dollars last year.
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