S. Korea's foreign debt falls for 2nd year in 2024

　　SEOUL, Feb. 27 (Xinhua) -- South Korea's foreign debt fell for the second straight year due to lower long-term debt, which offset an increased short-term liability, central bank data showed Thursday.

　　Foreign debt decreased 2.5 billion U.S. dollars from a year earlier to 670.1 billion dollars at the end of December 2024, after reducing 0.8 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 gained 6.2 billion dollars to 146.9 billion dollars, but long-term external liability declined 8.7 billion dollars to 523.2 billion dollars.

　　The ratio of short-term foreign debt to the total external liability picked up 1.0 percentage point from a year earlier to 21.9 percent at the end of December.

　　The ratio of short-term foreign debt to foreign reserves climbed 1.8 percentage points to 35.3 percent.

　　Net external credit, or external credit minus foreign debt, stood at 398.1 billion dollars at the end of December, up 26.1 billion dollars from a year earlier. ■