BEIJING: China's sale of six billion yuan in government bonds in Hong Kong, the first such offer outside the mainland, was three times subscribed, the finance ministry has said.

Subscriptions totalled 18 billion yuan (2.6 billion dollars), triple the amount on offer, the ministry said in a statement posted on its website Tuesday. The oversubscription "showed Hong Kong investors are confident in the sustainable and healthy economic and social development of the nation," the statement said. Five billion yuan worth of the bonds would be sold to individual investors and the ministry has promised they each would finally get a proportion of at least 10,000 yuan, according to the statement. The remaining one billion yuan will be offered to institutional investors, it added. On offer are both two-year and three-year bonds, which carry coupon rates of 2.25 percent and 2.7 percent respectively, the ministry said earlier. Only institutional investors will be allowed to subscribe for five-year bonds, which carry a coupon rate of 3.3 percent. The subscription period started on September 28 and ended October 20. The bonds will be issued on October 27, the ministry said.