About 35 billion yuan of ten-year special treasury bonds were released on Monday, the second batch of a total 200 billion yuan in treasury bonds to be made available to the general public.

 

The Chinese Ministry of Finance launched the first batch of 15-year special treasury bonds valuing 31.97 billion yuan on Sept. 18.

 

The ministry said the second batch of bonds, on offer from Sept. 24-26, have an annual yield of 4.46 percent, and will be tradable from Sept. 28 through the national inter-bank bond market and stock markets.

 

Another batch of 32-billion-yuan bonds will be issued from Sept. 27 to Oct. 9 and will be tradable from Oct. 12, said the ministry.

 

The ministry announced on Sept. 10 that it would issue 200 billion yuan in special treasury bonds as part of a plan to raise 1.55 trillion yuan to fund the country's new foreign exchange investment firm.

 

"The bond selling to the public will help ease liquidity, prevent the economy from overheating and strengthen the macro-control policy," the ministry said.

 

The special treasury bonds will be issued in two groups, with the first 100 billion yuan to be issued this month in three phases, while the sale of the remaining 100 billion yuan is scheduled for the fourth quarter.

 

Private investors can trade the bonds through the pilot commercial banks - branches of the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, Agricultural Bank of China, Bank of China and China Construction Bank, said the ministry.

 

In June, China's legislature approved the issuance of 1.55 trillion yuan of special treasury bonds by the Ministry of Finance to buy 200 billion US dollars of the foreign exchange reserve for a state investment firm to better use the country's huge foreign exchange reserves.

 

At the end of August, the ministry issued 600 billion yuan of special treasury bonds targeting the country's commercial banks with an annual interest rate of 4.3 percent.

 

(Xinhua News Agency September 25, 2007)