Samurai bond neither suspended nor approved, ministry says

China denied it had suspended plans to issue its samurai bond project. Tokyo has been awash with rumors that deteriorating relations between Japan and China will see the yen-denominated Chinese issue scrubbed. But then Xu Fangming, director of the ministry's financial department, said the samurai bond, far from being withdrawn, had yet to be approved. Xu said the ministry did not decide on which currencies are used when issues are planned at the beginning of each year. The final choice depended on prevailing market conditions. Nihon Keizai Shimbun had reported that Beijing had cancelled a 30 billion yen (US$269.3 million) samurai issue after sizing up relations with Tokyo.