China began selling 19.5 billion yuan ($2.87 billion) in three-year local government bonds on August 24, the sixth sale of these bonds this year.

The Ministry of Finance (MOF) is issuing the bonds on behalf of Hebei, Shaanxi and Guizhou provinces, as well as Shanghai and Shenzhen.

The bonds pay a fixed annual interest rate of 2.37 percent, the MOF said. China has sold 133.5 billion yuan ($19.63 billion) of local government debt so far this year.

The bonds were sold on the national inter-bank bond market. They became tradable on August 30.