S.Korea's net foreign credit hits record high at 383.5 bln dollars

South Korea's net foreign credit hit a new record high, topping 380 billion U.S. dollars for the first time, central bank data showed on Wednesday.

Net foreign credit, which means subtracting foreign debts from external credit, reached a fresh high of 383.5 billion dollars as of end-September, up 25.7 billion dollars from three months earlier, according to the Bank of Korea (BOK).

External credit, which reflects money to receive from abroad, increased 34.3 billion dollars from three months earlier to 783.9 billion dollars as of end-September.

Foreign debts, which mean money to repay to foreign residents, gained 8.6 billion dollars to 400.4 billion dollars in the same period.

Healthiness of foreign debts worsened slightly. Foreign debts that mature in less than a year increased 5 billion dollars to 111.8 billion dollars. The portion of foreign debts to combined external liabilities was 27.9 percent, up 0.7 percentage points from three months ago.

The finance ministry said that though short-term foreign debts increased, overall situations of external liabilities remained sound, vowing to maintain the healthiness of foreign debts. Endit