China remains the largest local currency bond market in emerging East Asia, accounting for 76.6 percent of the total bond stock at the end of the first quarter of 2020, said the latest issue of the Asian Development Bank's (ADB) Asia Bond Monitor released on Thursday.

"The local currency bond market of China remains the largest in emerging East Asia at 12.5 trillion U.S. dollars at the end of the first quarter of 2020, representing 76.6 percent of the region's total bond stock. This is 4.9 percent higher compared to China's bond stock at the end of the fourth quarter of 2019 and 16.1 percent bigger compared to the same period last year," the ADB said in a statement.

Citing data from the report, the ADB said China's corporate bond market accelerated by 7.3 percent quarter-on-quarter in the first quarter of 2020 to reach 4.6 trillion U.S. dollars, helped in part by regulations issued by the government in March simplifying the issuance process for listed corporate bonds and enterprise bonds.

Government bonds, meanwhile, grew 3.5 percent quarter-on-quarter to reach 7.9 trillion U.S. dollars as local government bond issuance increased, the ADB said.

The ADB said the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region's local currency bonds amounted to 291 billion U.S. dollars after a 0.5-percent quarter-on-quarter contraction in the first quarter of 2020.

"The drop in local currency bonds outstanding stemmed from an 1.1-percent quarter-on-quarter contraction in government bonds and a tepid 0.2-percent quarter-on-quarter growth in the corporate bond segment," the ADB added.

Government bonds outstanding in the Hong Kong SAR reached 151 billion U.S. dollars at the end of March, while corporate bonds outstanding amounted to 140 billion U.S. dollars over the same period.

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