BEIJING, Mar. 4 -- The People's Bank of China (PBOC), the central bank, said Thursday the financial market remained stable in January this year with inter-bank bond issuance up 65 percent year-on-year.

In the first month, China's inter-bank bond issuance hit 345.35 billion yuan ($52.57 billion), a statement on the PBOC website said.

The central bank said the sharp rise was mainly backed by medium and short-term bonds, especially those that mature within five years.

By the end of January, China's inter-bank bond market had 16 trillion yuan of bonds, accounting for 97 percent of the total value of the country's bond market.

Transactions in the inter-bank bond market amounted to 3.9 trillion yuan in January, up 11.3 percent year-on-year.

Meanwhile, pledge-based bond repurchases grew 19.7 percent from the previous year to 6.9 trillion yuan.