Mainland bonds become good bet

HONG KONG - At a time when governments around the world are facing growing debt, mainland bonds are becoming almost as safe as US Treasuries in the market for insuring against defaults.

Mainland bonds have become cheaper to insure than those of the United Kingdom and France since August as the fastest-growing economy surpassed Japan to become the world's second largest.

"Right now the strongest balance sheet in the world is China's," Daniel Arbess, a manager who runs the $2.1 billion Xerion fund for Perella Weinberg Partners in New York, said in an interview with Bloomberg Television on Thursday.