BEIJING, July 3 -- China's outstanding foreign debt hit 5.44 trillion yuan (891.41 billion U.S. dollars) by the end of March, the country's forex regulator said on Thursday.

The figure is about 3.3 percent, or 175.1 billion, more than that at the end of last year.

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 said in a statement on its website.

Of the total outstanding external debt, registered external debt reached 3.48 trillion yuan, while the balance of trade credit between businesses amounted to 1.96 trillion yuan.

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 4.25 trillion yuan, while long- and medium-term outstanding external debt came in at 1.19 trillion yuan.

In terms of currency structure, debt denominated in U.S. dollars accounted for 81.32 percent of the outstanding registered external debt, that in Japanese yen accounted for 4.46 percent and that in euros accounted for 5.26 percent.