SINGAPORE, July 1 (Reuters) - Asia-Pacific central banks are closing a dollar-dominated bond fund and transferring the investment to a local-currency one, a group of regional monetary authorities said on Friday.
The Executives' Meeting of East Asia Pacific (EMEAP) central banks, established the $1 billion Asian Bond Fund 1 in 2003 to invest in dollar-denominated bonds issued by sovereign and quasi-sovereign issuers in member economies other than Japan, Australia and New Zealand.
In April this year, EMEAP said it decided the fund "has achieved its original purpose" and should be closed. It did not disclose the fund's current size.
It said that proceeds would be reinvested in the Asian Bond Fund 2 over seven months.
Central banks of Australia, China, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Japan, South Korea, Malaysia, New Zealand, the Philippines, Singapore and Thailand are EMEAP members.
From 2003 to 2015, issuance of local currency-denominated bonds in Asia ex-Japan increased nearly eight-fold to more than $1 trillion, according to EMEAP.