China began to issue 35 billion yuan (US$4.2 billion) worth of book-entry treasury bonds as of July 15, the Ministry of Finance announced Friday.

The two-year bonds, the seventh batch of the treasury bonds China has issued since the beginning of this year, will be available for wholesales on the national inter-bank bond market and securities exchange market between July 15 and 20, according to a news release from the Ministry of Finance.

With face values totaling 30 billion yuan (US$3.65 billion), the bonds will carry an annual interest rate of 1.58 percent.

They will be floated and quoted on the inter-bank bond market and Shanghai and Shenzhen stock exchanges for trading in cash and repurchase starting from July 26.

Public bidding was held on July 14 by the ministry for the distribution of 24.7 billion yuan (US$3.01 billion) worth of the bonds out of the batch, and the remaining 5.3 billion yuan (US$646 million) worth of the T-bonds was allocated to selected members of top T-bonds sales agencies for retailing.

The Agricultural Bank of China, Bank of Shanghai and Industrial and Commercial Bank of China are top sales agencies in terms of the volumes of the T-bonds they contracted for retailing.

(Xinhua News Agency July 15, 2005)