BEIJING, June 28 -- China's outstanding external debt stood at 2.51 trillion U.S. dollars at the end of March, data from the country's forex regulator showed Friday.

Outstanding external debt in terms of the Chinese yuan accounted for 48 percent of the total, said Wang Chunying, deputy head of the State Administration of Foreign Exchange.

In terms of maturity structure, the proportion of medium- and long-term debt was 44 percent at the end of March, according to Wang.

Wang said that it is expected that the scale of China's external debt will continue to remain stable, adding that with the cooling down of global inflation and the implementation of domestic macro policies, the foundation for the stability of the scale of external debt will be more solid.