BEIJING - China's outstanding foreign debt settled at $1.53 trillion by the end of September, data from the country's forex regulator showed on Wednesday.

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 accounted for 67 percent of the total, while long- and medium-term outstanding external debt accounted for 33 percent, the State Administration of Foreign Exchange (SAFE) said in a statement on its website.

The volume was down $150.3 billion from the data in June.

The SAFE attributed the retreat to domestic market entities paying off debts to avert currency risks amid rising expectations for the US interest rate hike in the third quarter.

The amount does not include the outstanding external debt of the Hong Kong and Macao special administrative regions or that of Taiwan.