China may experiment with high-yield corporate bond issuances, as and when "conditions permit", to help expand financing channels for its cash-starved small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), a senior central bank official said at a corporate bond forum in Beijing yesterday.

Outstanding corporate debt, including both exchange-listed and inter-bank issuances, surged dramatically from 560 billion yuan in 2006 to 2.1 trillion yuan by the end of October this year, said Hu Xiaolian, deputy governor of the People's Bank of China, the nation's central bank.

However, corporate bonds only accounted for 14 percent of all debt issued in China and less than 10 percent of banks' lending by the end of September, Hu said.