BEIJING - China's outstanding external debt hit $736.99 billion by the end of 2012, the country's foreign exchange regulator revealed Wednesday.

The amount does not include the outstanding external debt of the Hong Kong and Macao special administrative regions or that of Taiwan, the State Administration of Foreign Exchange, or?SAFE, said in a statement on its website.

The liability ratio, or external debt against the gross domestic product, stood at 8.96 percent, far below the international warning line of 20 percent, the statement said.

Of the total outstanding external debt, registered external debt reached $445.49 billion, while the balance of trade credit between enterprises amounted to $291.5 billion.

Most of the debt owed to foreign creditors resulted from short-term borrowing, as outstanding external debt with a term of one year or less amounted to $540.93 billion.

Long- and mid-term external debt outstanding amounted to $196.06 billion.

In terms of currency structure, debt in US dollars accounted for 77.83 percent of the outstanding registered external debt. Debt in euros accounted for 6.58 percent, while debt in yen took up 7.37 percent.

According to SAFE data, China accrued new mid- and long-term external debt amounting to $39.57 billion last year. The country repaid $33.02 billion in principal and $2.56 billion in interest last year.