China's external debt hits $891bn

China's outstanding foreign debt hit 5.44 trillion yuan ($891.41 billion) by the end of March, the State Administration of Foreign Exchange said in a statement carried by Chinese news agency Xinhua.
The figure is about 3.3 percent or 175.1 billion more than that at the end of last year. It does not include the outstanding external debt of the Hong Kong and Macao special administrative regions.
Of the total outstanding external debt, registered external debt amounted to 3.48 trillion yuan, while the balance of trade credit between businesses stood at 1.96 trillion yuan.