BEIJING, Aug. 24 -- China began selling 19.5 billion yuan (about 2.87 billion U.S. dollars) of three-year local government bonds on Tuesday, the sixth sale of such bonds this year.( ~% X3 L* y! M
The Ministry of Finance (MOF) is issuing the bonds on behalf of five provinces and municipalities -- Hebei, Shanghai, Shenzhen, Guizhou and Shaanxi.0 r9 J( s9 E5 O/ N5 @" @
The bonds pay a fixed annual interest rate of 2.37 percent, the MOF said in a statement on its website.
2 F/ y- O: P. P0 g1 J! i The bonds will be sold on the national inter-bank bond market and the stock market between Aug. 24 and Aug. 26 and become tradeable on Aug. 30.
2 u: S6 L6 x/ |. Z7 Q. z1 ] China has sold 133.5 billion yuan (19.63 billion U.S. dollars) of local government debt so far this year.
3 A6 S& |6 a8 Y, O1 O$ o The central government plans to sell 200 billion yuan (29.41 billion U.S. dollars) of local government debt in 2010.& e& k+ R1 h. q8 T1 y
The MOF began issuing local government bonds last year to help finance its 4-trillion-yuan stimulus package. |