China plans to sell $6.6b of local govt bonds

BEIJING - The Ministry of Finance (MOF) said Friday it will auction 41.6 billion yuan ($6.6 billion) in bonds on behalf of some local governments.

In an issuance plan released Friday, the first of its kind this year, the MOF said it will auction a total of 20.6 billion yuan of three-year local government bonds on June 15 for the governments of Qingdao, Guangxi, Chongqing, Shaanxi, Gansu, Hainan and Xinjiang.

It will auction another 21 billion yuan of five-year bonds for the above regions on June 29, the ministry said.

The MOF is scheduled to auction a total of 250 billion yuan in local government bonds in 2012.