1. Foreign debt 1. Foreign debt refers to a country’s liabilities to foreign countries.

According to the definitions of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank, external debt “includes all liabilities owed to non-residents with repayment obligations in foreign currency or local currency as the unit of accounting.”

2. Net external debt is equal to a country’s total external debt, minus all claims of the country’s residents on non-residents (i.e. overseas assets).

Total foreign debt and net foreign debt reflect the accumulated foreign debt in the past years, that is, the stock of foreign debt; the capital account of the balance of payments reflects the annual increase or decrease in foreign debt, that is, the flow of foreign debt.

2. Domestic debt 1. Domestic debt is a debt formed by each debtor entity targeting domestic investors by issuing bond certificates denominated in domestic currency or by concluding a specific contract. It is also called "domestic debt".

In a broad sense, it usually refers to the debts formed by the central government and local governments, public organizations, enterprises and companies, banks and other financial institutions in the country in the form of bonds issued or in the form of borrowings, leases, deferred payments, etc.

2. In a narrow sense, it only refers to the debt formed by the above-mentioned financing entities in the form of issuing bonds.

The main purpose of the government's domestic debt is to make up for the fiscal deficit or the temporary shortage of treasury funds, and it has increasingly become an important means for the government to regulate the economy.

Extended information: National debt is a special form of debt. Compared with the general creditor-debt relationship, it has the following characteristics: 1. From the perspective of the subject of the legal relationship, the creditor of the national debt can be either a domestic or foreign citizen, legal person or other organization, or it can be

The government of a certain country or region and international financial organizations, while the debtor can generally only be a country.

2. Judging from the nature of the legal relationship, the occurrence, change and elimination of the legal relationship of national debt mostly reflect the unilateral will of the state. Although compared with other financial legal relationships, the legal relationship of national debt is an equal legal relationship, but it is different from the general legal relationship.

Compared with the relationship between creditor's rights and debts, it reflects a certain degree of subordination, which is more obvious in the legal relationship between national internal debts.

3. From the perspective of legal relationship realization, treasury bonds are the creditor-debt relationship with the highest credit rating and the best security.

4. From the perspective of the debtor, national debt has the characteristics of voluntariness, compensation, and flexibility.

5. From the perspective of creditors, national bonds have the characteristics of safety, profitability, liquidity and other characteristics.