China's central bank injects 100b yuan into market Friday

BEIJING - China's central bank on Friday continued to pump cash into the banking system via reverse repos to maintain liquidity.

The People's Bank of China injected 100 billion yuan ($14.1 billion) into the market through seven-day reverse repos at an interest rate of 2.2 percent, according to a statement on the website of the central bank.

The move is intended to keep liquidity in the banking system at a reasonably sufficient level, the central bank said.

As 150 billion yuan of reverse repos matured Friday, the operation led to a net withdrawal of 50 billion yuan from the market.

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

China will pursue a prudent monetary policy in a more flexible and appropriate way, according to this year's government work report.

The country will use a variety of tools including required reserve ratio reductions, interest rate cuts, and re-lending to enable M2 money supply and aggregate financing to grow at notably higher rates than last year, said the report.