Central bank renews cash injection into market

BEIJING - China's central bank renewed its net cash injections via open market operations Monday after suspending the move for 17 trading days.

The People's Bank of China (PBOC) conducted 100 billion yuan ($14.5 billion) of reverse repos, a process by which the central bank purchases securities from banks through bidding, with an agreement to sell them back in the future.

The injection saw a net 40 billion yuan pumped into the market Monday, offset by 60 billion yuan in maturing reverse repos.

The operations included seven-day reverse repos priced to yield 2.45 percent, 14-day contracts with a yield of 2.6 percent, and 28-day agreements with a yield of 2.75 percent, according to a central bank statement.

As the end of the first quarter approaches, the central bank intends to keep liquidity stable. The US Federal Reserve's latest decision to raise interest rates has helped ease exchange rate uncertainty, said analysts.

Hours after the US interest rate hike, China's interest rates for medium-term lending facility (MLF) loans and reverse repos, both open market operation tools of the central bank, went up by 10 basis points.

The higher rates are the result of changes in market supply and demand and do not indicate a shift in China's monetary policy stance, the central bank has said.

China has vowed to pursue a prudent and neutral monetary policy in 2017.