China's central bank pumps more money into market

BEIJING - The central bank on Thursday pumped more money into the market to ease liquidity strain.

The People's Bank of China (PBOC) conducted 150 billion yuan ($23.4 billion) of seven-day reverse repurchase agreements (repo), a process in which central banks purchase securities from banks with an agreement to resell them in the future.

The reverse repo was priced to yield 2.35 percent, down from the 2.5 percent yield on Tuesday's net injection of 150 billion yuan using reverse repos, according to a PBOC's statement.

Liquidity in the money market has tightened due to dropping new yuan funds outstanding for foreign exchange and a depreciating Chinese yuan.

Following the cash injection, in Thursday's interbank market, the benchmark overnight Shanghai Interbank Offered Rate (Shibor), which measures the cost at which Chinese banks lend to one other, dropped by 2.7 basis points to 1.759 percent.