China will issue 35.07 billion yuan (US$4.6 billion) of ten-year book-entry treasury bonds next week, the Ministry of Finance said on Friday.

This is the tenth batch of such bonds issued by the ministry since the beginning of the year. China issued book-entry treasury bonds totaling 653 billion yuan (US$86 billion) in 2006,150 billion yuan more than in 2005.

The bonds carry a fixed interest rate of 4.40 percent. They will be sold via the interbank bond markets, stock markets, and some pilot commercial banks nationwide between June 25 and June 28 and will be available for trading as of July 4.

The pilot banks include the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, Agricultural Bank of China, Bank of China and China Construction Bank.

Interest on the bonds will be calculated from June 25 and the investors will receive the interest on June 25 and December 25 each year and the principal and interest when the bonds mature on June 25, 2017.

The ministry said the treasury bonds are available to investors who opened stock and mutual fund accounts at the China Securities Depository and Clearing Co. and bonds accounts at the China Treasury Bonds Depository and Clearing Co. and the pilot banks.

(Xinhua News Agency June 23, 2007)