SSRN-Chinese Bond Markets - An Introduction by Index and Portfolio Services, Standard & Poor's

Standard and Poor's has a very short but informative primer out on the Chinese Bond market. It is full of things I sure did not know about the bond market.

SSRN-Chinese Bond Markets - An Introduction by Index and Portfolio Services, Standard & Poor's:

"While foreign investors have flocked to Chinese equities because of performance and correlation considerations, there is relatively less awareness of Chinese bond markets. This paper serves as an introduction to structure, trading venues, investor base and performance of Chinese bond markets for outside investors.

After more than a quarter century of development, Chinese bond markets have evolved into a RMB 15 trillion (more than USD 2 trillion) market across a broad variety of credit, maturity and investor profiles.

The market has a multi-layered structure, comprised of the national interbank market, the exchange market and bank counters, with the interbank market being the dominant trading venue.

Foreign institutional investors can invest in Chinese bonds by seeking regulator approval for QFII quota or access to the interbank market....

Over the five years ending 2008, the Chinese bonds in aggregate returned 8.1% annually in USD terms as measured by S&P/CITIC Composite Bond Index, a rate higher than those of U.S. and European bonds. RMB appreciation was a key return"

Cite:
Standard & Poor's, Index and Portfolio Services, ,Chinese Bond Markets - An Introduction(March 31, 2009). Available at SSRN: http://ssrn.com/abstract=1371129