Dim Sum bonds transformed into the best local-currency company notes in Asia this year from the worst in 2011 and are among the top picks of Western Asset Management Co. as China's economy rebounds.

Corporate yuan-denominated securities sold outside mainland China gained 6.2 percent in 2012, more than returns on local currency company bonds from any other Asian country, according to HSBC Holdings Plc indexes as of Dec. 24. Dim Sum debt beat the 4.8 percent on non-government Hong Kong-dollar notes and the 4.7 percent increase in similar corporate debt denominated in Singapore's currency, the indexes show. The yuan notes lost more than 2 percent in 2011, the data show.

Goldman Sachs Group Inc., the fifth-biggest U.S. bank by assets, raised its 2013 expectations for the world's second-largest economy to 8.2 percent, after factory production grew faster than expected. Western Asset, which managed $10.7 billion of Asian fixed-income assets as of Sept. 30, expects growth of between 7 percent and 8 percent, compared with an annual pace of 7.4 percent in the third quarter.