External debt

The gross external debt of an economy represents, at any given time, the outstanding actual (rather than contingent) liabilities vis-à-vis non-residents that require the payment of principal and/or interest by the debtor at a single or several points in the future. 

The external debt statistics are broken down by instrument, original maturity and institutional sector. They also include indicators of net external debt (i.e. gross external debt net of external assets in debt instruments). 

The external debt statistics presented in this section are based on the international investment position. The detailed breakdowns presented for external debt all exclude intercompany lending reported under direct investment, as the underlying type of instrument and the respective original maturity are not available.