China's Ministry of Finance will launch three tranches of special treasury bonds in the fourth quarter of this year with a total value of 100 billion yuan (US$13 billion).

The bonds are part of the 200 billion yuan worth of special treasury bonds planned to be issued to raise 1.55 trillion yuan to fund the country's new foreign exchange investment firm.

Following the three batches of special treasury bonds issued in September, the ministry will issue another three batches respectively on Nov. 2, Nov. 16 and Dec. 14, whose maturity terms range from 10 years to 15 years.

The ministry did not disclose the interest rate or the details of the issuance, but the previous three batches of special treasury bonds totaling 103.4 billion yuan are offered at annual interest rates between 4.46 percent and 4.68 percent.

The ministry also planned to issue another five short-term and mid-term national bonds in the fourth quarter.

(Xinhua News Agency October 14, 2007)