BEIJING -- China''s interbank bond issuance hit 127.6 billion yuan ($17.84 billion) in January, up 89.75 percent over the same month of last year, a report published by the People''s Bank of China (PBOC) said Tuesday.

Specifically, financial bonds issued by policy banks reached 96.9 billion yuan, which is the primary reason for the surge, the report said.

Assets-backed securities (ABS) issuance hit 4.8 billion yuan, while short-term financing bills issuance reached 25.9 billion yuan.

As of the end of January, the country''s bond custody market totaled 12.27 trillion yuan, of which interbank bond custody aggregated 11.95 trillion yuan.

Meanwhile, the repo transactions of ABS hit 4.2 trillion yuan, down 14.7 percent from December 2007, said the central bank report without elaborating.

China''s interbank bond issuance hit 3.7 trillion yuan in 2007, up 95.85 percent from the previous year.-China Daily