China to auction local govt bonds

BEIJING -- Chinese Ministry of Finance will auction 23.6 billion yuan ($3.8 billion) of three-year bonds on behalf of six local governments at a yield of 3.92 percent, the ministry announced on Friday.

From July 29 to 31, the ministry will sell the bonds, of which 5.6 billion yuan will go to Heilongjiang province, 700 million yuan to Xiamen city, 7.7 billion yuan to Hunan province, 4.7 billion yuan to Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region, 600 million yuan to Tibet autonomous region and 4.3 billion yuan to Qinghai province.

This will be the fifth batch of auctioned bonds this year. The ministry plans to sell local government debt worth a combined total of 350 billion yuan in 2013, the most since 2009, in order to meet growing expenditure demand.