China’s bond market custodian balance hits 209 trn yuan; August govt net bond financing 1.01 trn yuan

The headline number is the custodian balance, but the more telling detail is the composition shift: government net financing fell sharply year on year while corporate net issuance rose. That suggests the marginal supplier of bond supply is rotating from the public to the private sector, which matters for duration and credit spreads alike. Whether the corporate pickup is genuine risk appetite or merely a substitution effect as government supply slows is the open question.