China to allocate another one trln yuan of local govt. bonds quota

VCG

China will allocate an additional quota of one trillion yuan (about 141.52 billion U.S. dollars) in advance for the issuance of local government special bonds, said the Ministry of Finance (MOF) on Monday.

So far, the ministry has already issued 1.85 trillion yuan of local government bonds quota ahead of schedule.

As of April 15, the value of new local government bonds issued nationwide totaled 1.57 trillion, an increase of 26 percent year on year, accounting for 85 percent of the quota allocated ahead of schedule, Wang Kebing, an MOF official said.

Wang said that the issuance of local bonds is efficient, large in scale, and with more reasonable maturity, adding that the proportion of long-term bonds is nearly 90 percent. The ministry will work to complete the bond issuance by the end of May in a bid to shore up the economy affected by the COVID-19.

In addition, a total of 1.16 trillion yuan of new special bonds had been issued by local governments as of April 15, mainly for new and under-construction projects, according to Wang.