China steadily aims to be the leading country across the world in most key figures. Maybe that is why the foreign public debt grows so rapidly. The government released data for the Q2 showing that the debt amounted to 10.277 trillion yuan equivalent to 1.7 trillion US dollars. Therefore, it is the first time when the figure exceeds the psychological threshold of 10 trillion yuan. In total, from April till July the foreign debt grew by a record 63 per cent. It is worth saying that short-term liabilities account for 1.17 US dollars in debt. At the same time, over two thirds of the public debt is denominated in the US dollars and the debt in euros and Japanese yen accounts for 6 and 4 per cent, respectively. Taking it into account, the China’s bold statements about refusal to use the US dollar as the main currency for international payments sound rather strange. The Chinese authorities borrow and have reserves in the US dollars while trying to persuade citizens to keep their savings in yuan. Economists say that the public debt growth can be driven by the negative data for Q3 which was marked by disturbances in all markets of the Asia-Pacific region. The Shenzhen Composite and the Shanghai Composite have showed the worst results since the last global financial crisis as they lost about one third of its value.
