Gross external debt (ED), at any point in time, is the outstanding amount of those actual current, and not contingent, liabilities that require payment(s) of principal and/or interest by the debtor at some point(s) in time in the future and that are owed to non-residents by residents of an economy.

This article compares the ED statistics of Hong Kong for the fourth quarter of 2003 with selected economies, including Canada, France, Germany, Italy, the United Kingdom, the United States, and some other neighbouring economies including Australia, Japan, the Republic of Korea, Singapore and Thailand.