SEOUL, May 28 (Xinhua) -- South Korea's foreign debt grew in the first quarter owing to higher debt in both short and long terms, central bank data showed Wednesday.
Foreign debt increased 10.5 billion U.S. dollars to 683.4 billion dollars in the January-March quarter after decreasing 32.1 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 added 2.8 billion dollars to 149.3 billion dollars in the first quarter, while long-term external liability expanded 7.7 billion dollars to 534.1 billion dollars.
The ratio of short-term foreign debt to the total external liability advanced 0.1 percentage point from three months earlier to 21.9 percent at the end of March.
The ratio of short-term foreign debt to foreign reserves gained 1.2 percentage points to 36.5 percent.
Net external credit, or external credit minus foreign debt, came to 367.9 billion dollars at the end of March, down 19.2 billion dollars from three months earlier.
