China's central bank resumes open market operations

BEIJING — China's central bank resumed open market operations Wednesday after 12 work days of suspension.

The People's Bank of China (PBOC) said on its website it conducted 60 billion yuan ($9.2 billion) of seven-day reverse repos and another 60 billion yuan of 14-day reverse repos on Wednesday.

Offset by 120 billion yuan of maturing reverse repos, the operations resulted in no net injection into or withdrawal from the money market.

The central bank had suspended open market operations for 12 work days before Wednesday, citing sufficient liquidity in the banking system.

A reverse repo is a process by which the central bank purchases securities from commercial banks through bidding, with an agreement to sell them back in the future.

The PBOC said earlier that it would conduct open market operations in a flexible way to meet the liquidity needs of banks.

China will continue a prudent and neutral monetary policy in 2018 as the world's second-largest economy strives to balance growth with risk prevention.