Pimco launches GDP-weighted global bond index

NEW YORK Jan 12 (Reuters) - Pacific Investment Management Co. said it will launch a new global bond index on Monday to chart the performance of fixed-income securities in the United States as well as in other industrialized and emerging economies.

The new index from Pimco, which is the world's biggest bond investment manager, will compete against the Barclays Global Aggregate Index, formerly Lehman Brothers Global Aggregate.

Traditionally, bond and stock indexes are rolled out by brokerages and investment banks, making the move by Pimco unusual.

Many stock and bond indexes are market capitalization-weighted. But the key aspect on which the weightings of regions and securities are based is by gross domestic product, as calculated in the new Pimco index, the Newport Beach, Calif. firm said.

This will help capture opportunities in the debt securities and instruments of governments and companies that are accounting for an increasing share of the world's growth, Mohamed El-Erian, the chief executive of Pimco, told Reuters in a telephone interview.

Pimco oversees over $830 billion in assets.

(Reporting by Jennifer Ablan; Editing by Walker Simon)