(Xinhua)
Updated: 2008-03-06 20:04

BEIJING -- The People's Bank of China (PBOC) on Thursday drained 275 billion yuan (38.6 billion US dollars) from the interbank market through central bank bills and repurchase transactions.

The PBOC issued 100 billion yuan of three-year bills with a yield of 4.56 percent, and 60 billion yuan of three-month bills with a yield of 3.40 percent. Both yields are flat from last week.

The central bank also conducted 110 billion yuan of 28-day repos and five billion yuan of 182-day repos. The yields are 3.20 percent and 3.65 percent, respectively, flat from last week.

Analysts said the huge size of the open market operations sent the market a clear signal of renewed efforts to mop up excess liquidity and curb the inflation that surged to the 11-year high of 7.1 percent in January.

M2, the broader measure of money supply, which covers cash in circulation plus all deposits, rose 18.94 percent by the end of January, 2.22 percentage points higher than a month earlier, according to the PBOC.

It has also said that new Renminbi loans in January surged to a record high of 803.6 billion yuan, up 237.3 billion yuan from a year earlier.