China central bank says injected 855b yuan through short-term liquidity operations in Dec

[SHANGHAI] China's central bank said on Friday it injected 855 billion yuan (US$136.81 billion) of funds from the money market through short-term liquidity operations (SLOs) in December.

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

Unlike open market operations conducted via auction of central bank bills and bond repurchase agreements, SLOs are not publicly announced at the time they are conducted.

China's money markets rose on Friday, with the major benchmark money rate gaining over 24 basis points for the week on cash demand for month-end tax payments and the looming lunar new year holiday that will close markets for a week.

REUTERS