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WASHINGTON, April 2-- The Bloomberg Barclays Global Aggregate Index started including China's yuan-demoninated bonds Monday, with a 20-month phase-in period. The inclusion of the 356 bonds, issued by the government and policy banks, in the index is expected to attract foreign inflows into the Chinese bond market and foster a further opening-up of the country's financial sector. FOREIGN INFLOWS After their full inclusion, Chinese renminbi (RMB)-denominated bonds will become the fourth-largest currency component, following the U.S. dollar, the euro and the Japanese yen. China's weight would reach approximately 6 percent of the index, using data as of Jan. 31 this year. "It will effectively lead to more purchases of Chinese bonds by foreigners and provide investors globally with an opportunity to diversify their assets," Alfred Schipke, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) senior resident representative for China, told Xinhua in a recent interview. Goldman Sachs estimated in February that total inflows into China's bond market prompted by this inclusion would be 120-135 billion U.S. dollars over the 20-month scale-in period. Morgan Stanley, meanwhile, expects to see 80-100 billion dollars of inflows into the government bond market in 2019, compared to 35 billion dollars on average between 2017 and 2018. It sees as much as 120 billion dollars going into China's government bond market annually from 2020 to 2030, according to a February report. | 
