Debt totaled US$168.5 billion at the end of last year, down a marginal 0.92 percent over 2001, the State Administration of Foreign Exchange said in a statement.

The ratio of foreign debt to gross domestic product (GDP) stood at 13.6 percent and was well under the international alert line of 20 percent, it said.

China's GDP reached 10 trillion yuan (US$1.2 trillion) last year.

Of the total foreign debt, about 31 percent, or US$53 billion, was short-term debt, which refers to borrowings with less than 12 months' maturity.

The amount of short-term foreign debt - which by convention should be lower than a country's foreign exchange reserves - was far outweighed by foreign exchange reserves, which stood at US$286 billion at the end of 2002 and had swelled to US$316 billion at the end of last month, according to the central People's Bank of China.

Short-term borrowing activities are believed to be more risk-prone than the other options.

China's financial authorities have always kept a strict check on the country's overseas borrowing activities.

The government has held its reins even tighter over enterprises' short-term borrowings after the Guangdong International Trust and Investment Corp, a big borrower in the international market, defaulted on its loan repayment and bond redemption and went into bankruptcy in 1998.

(China Daily April 18, 2003)