China's central bank injects liquidity into market

BEIJING - China's central bank announced Monday it had pumped 236.1 billion yuan ($37.3 billion) into the market via multiple tools.

The People's Bank of China (PBOC) said it injected 80.1 billion yuan through pledged supplementary lending (PSL) and 156 billion yuan via the medium-term lending facility (MLF) to keep liquidity basically stable.

The interest rate for the one-year MLF stood at 3.3 percent. First introduced in 2014 to help commercial and policy banks maintain liquidity, the MLF tool allows lenders to borrow from the central bank by using securities as collateral.

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.