BEIJING - China's outstanding foreign debt settled at $894.8 billion by the end of September, data from the country's forex regulator showed on Friday.

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 (SAFE) said in a statement on its website.

Of the total outstanding external debt, registered external debt reached $561.3 billion, while the balance of trade credit between businesses amounted to $333.5 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 $708.95 billion, while long- and medium-term outstanding external debt came in at $185.88 billion.

In terms of currency structure, debt denominated in US dollars accounted for 79.81 percent of the outstanding registered external debt, and that in euros and Japanese yen accounted for 5.01 percent and 4.58 percent, respectively.