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PBOC's 190b yuan net injection indicates tight liquidity

By Song Jingli (chinadaily.com.cn)
Updated: 2010-06-18 14:16

The People's Bank of China (PBOC) added a net 190 billion yuan ($27.82 billion) through open-market operations this week, suggesting a shortage of cash at banks, the Oriental Morning Post reported Friday.

The PBOC, China's central bank, offered 5 billion yuan of one-year notes and 18 billion yuan of three-year notes at the auction Thursday, 80 percent less in value than PBOC's last such movement.

The net cash injection by the monetary authority in the last four weeks has exceeded 500 billion yuan.

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However, the trend of net injections may last until the end of Agricultural Bank of China's initial public offering, analysts estimated.

On Thursday, all types of pledge-style repurchase rates, a measure of lending costs between banks, were directly driven higher, by State-owned banks raising 85.2 billion yuan from such transactions.

Despite PBOC's 190-billion yuan net injection, the shortage of cash on the first trading day after a three-day holiday was obvious, said a trader at a city commercial bank. The trader said State-owned banks showed strong willingness to raise capital, keeping borrowing before the market closed.