GOVT AND POLICIES

Central bank injects fresh funds to market

China's central bank on Thursday injected fresh funds to the money market via reverse repos to keep liquidity stable. The People's Bank of China pumped 100 billion yuan ($15.3 billion) into the financial system via a process by which the central bank purchases securities from commercial banks through bidding with an agreement to sell them back in the future. The operations included 60 billion yuan seven-day reverse repos priced to yield 2.45 percent, 30 billion yuan of 14-day contracts with a yield of 2.6 percent and 10 billion yuan of 28-day agreements with a yield of 2.75 percent. 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 monetary policy in 2017 as prudent and neutral, keeping appropriate liquidity levels but avoiding excessive liquidity injections.