China central bank skips open market operations on sufficient liquidity

BEIJING — China's central bank suspended open market operations Friday, citing sufficient liquidity in the banking system.

The move meant a net cash withdrawal of 40 billion yuan ($6.05 billion) from the market as previous reverse repos matured Friday.

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.

Liquidity was at a "relatively high level" after increased fiscal spending at the end of November offset the effect of matured reverse repos, the People's Bank of China (PBOC) said in a statement.

Fiscal expenditure sees fiscal deposits flowing into commercial banks from the central bank, thus improving market liquidity.

The move came after the PBOC conducted 280 billion yuan of reverse repos Thursday, and 240 billion yuan Wednesday.

The central bank has increasingly relied on open market operations for liquidity management, rather than cuts in interest rates or reserve requirement ratios.

China set the tone of its 2017 monetary policy as prudent and neutral, keeping appropriate liquidity levels while avoiding excessive liquidity injections.