(Bloomberg) -- China is on track to sell a record amount of yuan-denominated sovereign bonds overseas this year, in a move that will help authorities support a weakening currency and boost its global popularity in the long run. 

The country’s Ministry of Finance will issue 26 billion yuan ($3.6 billion) of such debt in Hong Kong in the current quarter, starting with a first batch of 16 billion yuan on Oct. 25, it said in a statement Wednesday. That will take the annual tally to 55 billion yuan, the most since China issued its first offshore yuan sovereign note in 2009, Bloomberg calculations of official data show.

An increase in such debt issuance will aid Beijing’s efforts to bolster the yuan, which is near a record low offshore, by raising demand for the currency and tightening its supply offshore. With the finance ministry being the second biggest issuer in the offshore yuan bond market behind the central bank, a steady supply of such notes also will help build a pricing benchmark for corporate borrowers in the long term. 

“Supporting the offshore yuan is probably the top goal of the increased issuance. The amount is tiny relative to fiscal aid,” said Stephen Chiu, chief Asia FX and rates strategist at Bloomberg Intelligence. “The offshore government debt pool is still too small, and China will have the incentive to boost it for the long-term purpose of yuan internationalization.”

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