The total value of State treasury bill transactions have reached nearly21 trillion VND (1 billion USD), the Hanoi Stock Exchange has reported.

Treasurybills are Government bonds issued by the Ministry of Finance with termsof less than a year to compensate for the State budget. They are alsoan important tool for the State Bank of Vietnam to operate monetarypolicies.

Treasury bill trading on the Hanoi bourse began onAugust 24, 2012, and ever since, the transactions have grownsignificantly in value, the exchange said.

Trading reached morethan 909 billion VND (43.28 million USD) in 2012 and nearly 11.70trillion VND (557.14 million USD) in 2013. In the first seven months ofthis year, trading hit more than 8 trillion VND (380.95 million USD),representing about 70 percent of last year's entire amount.

Commercialbanks accounted for more than 75 percent of the total transaction valueon the market while securities companies accounted for about fivepercent. The value of bills traded through brokerages of securitiescompanies made up about 20 percent.

Foreign investors tradedabout 930 billion VND (44.28 million USD) worth of bills in 2012 andabout 9.61 trillion VND (457.62 million USD) in 2013. In the first sevenmonths of this year, they traded about 4.33 trillion VND (206.19 millionUSD) worth of bills.-VNA