China central bank injects 200b yuan via medium-term lending facility, rates unchanged

[SHANGHAI] China's central bank on Tuesday lent 200 billion yuan (S$39.8 billion) to financial institutions via its one-year medium-term lending facility (MLF), with the interest rate unchanged from before, it said in a statement.

The interest rate for the one-year MLF was 3.30 per cent, the People's Bank of China (PBOC) said, the same as the previous such operation.

The fresh fund injection effectively offsets the maturing of such loans with a total value of 156 billion yuan on the same day.

In the same statement, the PBOC said it skipped reverse repo operations on Tuesday.

With 20 billion yuan worth of reverse repos maturing on Tuesday, the central bank injected a net 24 billion yuan via open market operations on the day.

The central bank has been using the facility to channel funds more directly to sectors of the economy needing them most.

REUTERS