Chinese local governments issue nearly 1.5t yuan bonds in Jan-May

BEIJING - China issued new local government bonds worth 1.4596 trillion yuan ($211.1 billion) in the first five months of 2019, official data showed Tuesday.

The accumulated new bonds accounted for about 47.4 percent of the annual local government debt quota of 3.08 trillion yuan, according to a statement from the Ministry of Finance, the People's Bank of China and four other government agencies.

Among them, 859.8 billion yuan was raised by special local government bonds.

Most of the new local government bonds were used to finance projects under construction including railways, water conservancy works and agriculture infrastructure.

China issued a document Monday which encourages local governments and financial institutions to use special bonds and other market-based financing methods to support key areas and major projects such as the coordinated development of the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region and the construction of the Yangtze River Economic Belt.