China continues to inject liquidity into money market

BEIJING - China's central bank continued to inject funds into the financial system through open market operations on Friday to offset liquidity pressure.

The People's Bank of China said on its website that it has released 100 billion yuan (about $15.6 billion) of liquidity through central treasury cash management tools.

It also injected 60.5 billion yuan through pledged supplementary lending (PSL) and 100 billion yuan via reverse repos.

The interest rate stood at 2.55 percent for 50 billion yuan of seven-day reverse repos, 2.7 percent for 30 billion yuan of 14-day reverse repos, and 2.85 percent for 20 billion yuan of 28-day operations. All rates were unchanged from previous operations.

The moves are aimed at offsetting impacts from factors including taxation peaks and financial institutions' deposits of required reserves, according to the central bank.

The central bank increasingly relies on open-market operations, rather than changes in interest rates or reserve requirement ratios, to manage liquidity in a more flexible and targeted manner.

China has decided to maintain a prudent and neutral monetary policy in 2018 as it strives to balance growth and risk prevention.