China central bank injects liquidity into market via reverse repos, PSL

BEIJING - The central bank injected cash into the money market through a variety of tools Wednesday to ease liquidity.

The People's Bank of China (PBOC) conducted 110 billion yuan ($15.93 billion) of reverse repos, a process by which central banks purchase securities from banks with an agreement to sell them back in the future.

The operations included 90 billion yuan of seven-day reverse repo priced to yield 2.45 percent; 10 billion yuan of 14-day contracts with a yield of 2.6 percent; and 10 billion yuan of 28-day agreements with a yield of 2.75 percent.

It was the first cash injection by the PBOC via reverse repos after a three-business day suspension.

As 190 billion yuan of previous reverse repos were due Wednesday, the operation still resulted in a net liquidity withdraw of 80 billion yuan from the market.

On Wednesday, the PBOC also pumped 47.6 billion yuan into the market through pledged supplementary lending (PSL), a tool designed to help the central bank better target longer-term lending rates.

The central bank has increasingly relied on open-market operations for liquidity, rather than cuts to interest rates or reserve requirement ratios to maintain its prudent monetary policy.