China pumps net $34 billion into markets

BEIJING -- China's central bank pumped a net 230 billion yuan ($33.63 billion) of liquidity into the country's banking system via open market operations during the last week to maintain liquidity at a reasonable and ample level.

The People's Bank of China injected 620 billion yuan of liquidity into the markets via reverse repo operations from Sept 7 to 11, and drained 390 billion yuan from the markets as the same amount of reserve repo agreements matured.

A reverse repo is a process in which the central bank purchases securities from commercial banks through bidding, with an agreement to sell them back in the future.

The central bank has maintained seven-day reverse repos for 26 consecutive trading days, which analysts said was aimed at ensuring market liquidity to meet rising cash demand from increasing bond issuance.

China has vowed to pursue a prudent monetary policy in a more flexible and appropriate way. The central bank said in its second-quarter monetary policy report that it will make monetary policy more flexible and targeted to achieve a long-term balance between stabilizing growth and preventing risks.