China central bank injects US$22.8b via short-term liquidity operations

[BEIJING] China's central bank injected 150 billion yuan (US$22.80 billion)into banks on Wednesday through its short-term liquidity operations (SLO) tool, according to a statement on its website.

The interest rate on the 6-day lines of credit will be 2.25 per cent, the People's Bank of China (PBOC) said. No details were provided.

The PBOC injected 55 billion yuan via a 3-day SLO on Monday. It also injected 410 billion yuan into the nation's banking system via its medium-term lending facility (MLF) and lowered rates for three-month and one-year tenors on Tuesday.

The central bank said on Tuesday that it would inject over 600 billion yuan to help ease a liquidity squeeze expected before the Lunar New Year in early February. It said it would inject the funds via the standing lending facility (SLF), medium-term lending facility (MLF) and pledged supplementary lending (PSL) policy tools.

The PBOC launched SLOs in 2013 to supplement its other monetary policy tools. The facility is mainly used to provide one- to three-day direct lines of credit to commercial banks, though loans with other maturities are occasionally used.

REUTERS