BEIJING, Sept. 6 (Xinhua) -- China saw faster issuance of local government bonds at lower interest rates during the Jan.-Aug. period amid the country's efforts to improve financing efficiency.
New local government bonds worth 2.8951 trillion yuan (about 407 billion U.S. dollars) were issued in the first eight months of this year, accounting for 94 percent of the planned quota for the whole year, which was 34 percentage points higher over a year ago, data from the Ministry of Finance (MOF) showed.
The average issuance interest rate of the new bonds stood at 3.41 percent during this period, down by 44 basis points year on year.
Over 2.2 trillion yuan worth of new local government bonds were already planned for use, with nearly 40 percent going towards building government-subsidized housing and rebuilding rundown urban areas.
Wednesday's State Council executive meeting decided that all special local government bonds in this year's quota must be issued by the end of September and disbursed to projects by the end of October.
Local governments will be urged to ensure that these projects generate activities in the real economy as quickly as possible, the meeting said.
Local government debt balance stood at 21.4139 trillion yuan by end-August, well within the quota approved by the National People's Congress, MOF data showed.
