Vietnam registered the most rapid year-on-year growth in the government bond market, posting a 64.6 percent expansion to 29 billion USD, fueled by heavy issuance of treasury, central bank, and state-owned enterprise bonds.

According to the latest edition of the Asian Development Bank’s (ADB) Asia Bond Monitor, the country’s corporate bond market, however, shrank 47.2 percent to 1 billion USD.

The quarterly Asia Bond Monitor assesses the bond markets of Chinese Hong Kong, Indonesia , the Republic of Korea , Malaysia , the Philippines , Singapore , Thailand and Vietnam .

It said the Emerging East Asia’s local currency bond markets expanded 12.1 percent year-on-year to 6.7 trillion USD at the end of March 2013, driven by double-digit growth in corporate bonds.

Meanwhile, the region’s corporate bond market expanded 19.5 percent year-on-year and 4.6 percent quarter-on-quarter to 2.4 trillion USD in late March. Meanwhile, the government bond market grew at a more modest annual pace of 8.3 percent and a quarterly rate of 2 percent to 4.3 trillion USD.

Indonesia had the fastest growing corporate bond market in the region during the first quarter, expanding 26.9 percent year-on-year to 20 billion USD, followed by the China , which had the region’s largest corporate bond market at 1.1 trillion USD, up 25.3 percent year-on-year.

The Manila-based ADB is dedicated to reducing poverty in Asia and the Pacific through inclusive economic growth, environmentally sustainable growth and regional integration. Established in 1966, it is owned by 67 members, including 48 from the region. In 2012, the bank’s assistance totaled 21.6 billion USD, including co-financing of 8.3 billion USD.-VNA