1.Bond Issuance

In March, the bond market saw a total issuance of RMB8735.66 billion. The issuances of treasury bonds, local government bonds, financial bonds, corporate credit bonds, 1 credit-asset-backed securities, and interbank certificates of deposit (CDs) reached RMB1278.63 billion, RMB978.80 billion, RMB1022.64 billion, RMB1333.52 billion, RMB18.60 billion, and RMB4068.62 billion, respectively. 

As of end-March, outstanding bonds held in custody amounted to RMB183.1 trillion, including RMB161.8 trillion in the interbank bond market and RMB21.3 trillion in the exchange bond market. By bond type, treasury bonds, local government bonds, financial bonds, corporate credit bonds, credit-asset backed securities, and interbank CDs in custody recorded outstanding amounts of RMB35.3 trillion, RMB49.8 trillion, RMB41.5 trillion, RMB33.1 trillion, RMB1.1 trillion, and RMB21.2 trillion, respectively. Commercial bank over-the-counter (OTC) bonds in custody recorded an outstanding amount of RMB164.90 billion.

2.Bond Market

In March, cash bond trading in the interbank bond market saw a turnover of RMB36.5 trillion, recording a year-on-year decline of 6.7 percent but a month-on-month growth of 22.1 percent, with the daily average standing atRMB1.7 trillion. Of the total turnover, transactions with each trade between RMB5 million and RMB50 million accounted for 49.8 percent, while those with each trade above RMB90 million made up 44.0 percent. The average value per trade was RMB41.98 million. The turnover of cash bond trading in the exchange bond market was RMB3.6 trillion, averaging RMB171.84 billion daily. A total of 118,000 transactions were done in the commercial bank OTC bond market, registering a turnover of RMB65.68 billion.

3.Bond Market Opening-up

As of end-March, overseas institutions held RMB4.4 trillion, or 2.4 percent, of the outstanding bonds in custody in China's bond market. Specifically, their holdings in the interbank bond market amounted to RMB4.4 trillion. By bond type, overseas institutions held RMB2.1 trillion, or 47.4 percent, of treasury bonds, RMB1.3 trillion, or 29.4 percent, of interbank CDs, and RMB0.8 trillion, or 18.9 percent, of policy bank bonds.

4.Money Market

In March, transactions in the interbank lending market totaled RMB6.1 trillion, down by 32.8 percent year on year but up by 40.5 percent month on month. Bond repo transactions fell by 14.4 percent year on year to RMB124.7 trillion, representing a month-on-month rise of 35.9 percent. Repo transactions of exchange-traded standardized bonds increased by 22.4 percent year on year and 11.3 percent month on month to RMB51.4 trillion.

In March, the monthly weighted average interest rate on interbank lending stood at 1.85 percent, down by 10 bps month on month, while that on pledged repos was 1.87 percent, down by 13 bps month on month.

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