BEIJING, Sept. 29 (Xinhua) -- Outstanding of China's external debts rose by 4.8 billion U.S. dollars in six months to 327.8 billion dollars by the end of June 2007, according to statistics released by the State Administration of Foreign Exchange (SAFE) here Saturday.

    The statistics showed that outstanding of China's registered external debt in the first half of this year, which stood at 216.7billion dollars, experienced first negative growth for the past five years.

    The SAFE declined to give further details or comments.

    During the period, China borrowed mid- and long-term foreign debts of 15.37 billion dollars, an increase of 55.6 percent, 5.49 billion dollars, over the same period last year.

    Meanwhile, China has paid 11 billion dollars of debt principal and 1.74 billion dollars of interest, up 31.76 percent and 55.64 percent compared with the corresponding period last year respectively.