Central bank: In 2023, the bond market issued a total of 71 trillion yuan in various types of bonds, a year-on-year increase of 14.8%.

On February 29, the Central Bank released the operation of the financial market in 2023. In 2023, the bond market size saw stable growth, with overall downward fluctuations in government bond yields. In 2023, various types of bonds totaling 71 trillion yuan were issued in the bond market, an increase of 14.8% year-on-year. In 2023, government bonds were issued at 11 trillion yuan, local government bonds at 9.3 trillion yuan, financial bonds at 10.2 trillion yuan, corporate credit bonds at 14 trillion yuan, credit asset-backed securities at 3485.2 billion yuan, and interbank deposits at 25.8 trillion yuan. The original text above: Financial Market Operation in 2023 In 2023, the bond market size saw stable growth, with overall downward fluctuations in government bond yields; high-level opening of the bond market steadily promoted, with a diversified investor structure; trading volume in the money market continued to increase, and trading volume in the interbank derivative market maintained growth; major stock market indices fell. I. Stable Growth in Bond Market Size In 2023, various types of bonds totaling 71 trillion yuan were issued in the bond market, an increase of 14.8% year-on-year. Among them, 61.4 trillion yuan of bonds were issued in the interbank bond market, and 9.6 trillion yuan in the exchange market. In 2023, government bonds were issued at 11 trillion yuan, local government bonds at 9.3 trillion yuan, financial bonds at 10.2 trillion yuan, corporate credit bonds at 14 trillion yuan, credit asset-backed securities at 3485.2 billion yuan, and interbank deposits at 25.8 trillion yuan. By the end of 2023, the custody balance in the bond market reached 157.9 trillion yuan, an increase of 9.1% year-on-year, with 137.0 trillion yuan in the interbank bond market and 20.9 trillion yuan in the exchange market. Commercial banks' counter bond custody balance was 577.5 billion yuan. II. Overall Downward Fluctuations in Bond Yields At the end of 2023, the yields of 1 year, 3 years, 5 years, 7 years, and 10 years government bonds were 2.08%, 2.29%, 2.40%, 2.53%, and 2.56% respectively, down by 2, 11, 24, 29, and 28 basis points from the end of 2022. At the end of 2023, the closing price of the ChinaBond government bond total index was 224.5, an increase of 10.8 from the end of 2022; the closing price of the ChinaBond new comprehensive price index was 124.6, an increase of 2.5 from the end of 2022. In December 2023, the average weighted monthly interest rate for interbank lending was 1.78%, up by 52 basis points year-on-year; the average weighted monthly interest rate for interbank repo was 1.90%, up by 50 basis points year-on-year. III. Steady and Orderly Opening of the Bond Market to Overseas By the end of 2023, the custody balance of overseas institutions in the Chinese bond market was 3.72 trillion yuan, accounting for 2.4% of the total custody balance in the Chinese bond market. Among them, the custody balance of overseas institutions in the interbank bond market was 3.67 trillion yuan. By types of bonds, overseas institutions held 2.29 trillion yuan of government bonds, accounting for 62.4%, and 0.80 trillion yuan of policy financial bonds, accounting for 21.8%. IV. Diversified Structure of Bond Market Investors At the end of 2023, according to statistics of non-financial corporate debt financing instrument holders (based on management personnel dimensions), there were a total of 2,162 holders. In terms of the proportion of holdings, the top 50 holders accounted for 50.6%, mainly concentrated in public funds, large state-owned commercial banks, joint-stock commercial banks, etc.; the top 200 holders accounted for 82.1%. The maximum, minimum, average, and median number of holders of non-financial corporate debt financing instruments were 57, 1, 13, and 12 respectively, and those with less than 20 holders accounted for 88%. In terms of trading volume, the top 50 traders of non-financial corporate debt financing instruments in 2023 accounted for 62.4% of trades, mainly concentrated in securities firms, fund companies, and joint-stock commercial banks; the top 200 traders accounted for 89.8%. V. Continuous Increase in Money Market Trading Volume In 2023, the total trading volume in the interbank money market was 181.72 trillion yuan, an increase of 19% year-on-year. Among them, repurchase transactions amounted to 166.88 trillion yuan, an increase of 21.4%; outright repurchase transactions were 0.54 trillion yuan, a decrease of 2.7%; interbank lending transactions were 1.43 trillion yuan, a decrease of 2.6%. The trading volume of exchange-standard bond repurchase transactions was 45.58 trillion yuan, an increase of 12.9%. In 2023, the trading volume of bonds in the interbank bond market was 30.73 trillion yuan, with a daily average trading volume of 1,234.16 billion yuan; the volume of single transactions was mainly distributed in the range of 500-5000 million yuan and above 9,000 million yuan, with an average single transaction volume of 4,702.1 million yuan. The trading volume of bonds in the exchange market was 4.64 trillion yuan, with a daily average trading volume of 191.93 billion yuan. The cumulative number of transactions in the counter bond market was 1.05 million, with a transaction amount of 196.14 billion yuan. By the end of 2023, there were a total of 30 commercial banks offering counter bond business, an increase of 2 from the end of 2022. VI. Stable Scale of Bills Market Acceptance and Discounting In 2023, the total issuance of commercial drafts for acceptance was 31.3 trillion yuan, and the discounting amount was 23.8 trillion yuan. By the end of 2023, the acceptance balance of commercial drafts was 18.6 trillion yuan, a decrease of 2.7% year-on-year; the discount balance was 13.3 trillion yuan, an increase of 2.1% year-on-year. In 2023, 213,000 SMEs issued bills, accounting for 93.1% of all bill issuers, with a total bill issuance amount of 20.7 trillion yuan, accounting for 65.9% of the total bill issuance amount. There were 320,000 SMEs discounting bills, accounting for 96.5% of all discounting companies, with a discount amount of 17.5 trillion yuan, accounting for 73.6% of the total discount amount. VII. Growth in Trading Volume of Interbank Derivatives Market In 2023, the trading volume of the interbank RMB derivatives market was 31.9 trillion yuan, an increase of 49.8% year-on-year. Among them, the total notional amount of interest rate swaps was 31.5 trillion yuan, an increase of 50.2% year-on-year; the trading volume of standard bond futures forward contracts was 308.8 billion yuan, the creation of credit risk mitigation instruments had a notional principal amount of 34.7 billion yuan, and the credit default swap had a notional principal amount of 2.5 billion yuan. The total trading volume of government bond futures wasInterbank transactions reached 52.4 trillion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 12.8%. The interest rate swap rate has decreased slightly, with the closing price (average) of the 1-year FR007 interest rate swap rate at 1.99% by the end of 2023, down 19 basis points from the end of 2022; the closing price (average) of the 5-year FR007 interest rate swap rate is 2.32%, down 45 basis points from the end of 2022.Eight, the main stock market indices fell At the end of 2023, the Shanghai Composite Index closed at 2974.9 points, down 114.3 points from the end of 2022, a decrease of 3.7%; the Shenzhen Component Index closed at 9524.7 points, down 1491.3 points from the end of 2022, a decrease of 13.5%. The total turnover of the two markets for the year was 212.2 trillion yuan, a decrease of 5.5% year-on-year. This article is excerpted from the official website of the People's Bank of China. Editor: Yang Wanlin.