China's central bank injects liquidity into market in June

BEIJING - China's central bank said Monday it continued to pump cash into the money market in June to meet financial institutions' demand for liquidity.

The People's Bank of China (PBOC) said 663 billion yuan ($99.6 billion) was injected into the market via the medium-term lending facility (MLF) last month to maintain liquidity in the banking system at a reasonable and ample level.

The funds will mature in one year at an interest rate of 3.3 percent.

Total outstanding MLF loans reached 4.4 trillion yuan as of the end of June.

The MLF tool was introduced in 2014 to help commercial and policy banks maintain liquidity by allowing them to borrow from the central bank using securities as collateral.

In June, the PBOC also injected 60.5 billion yuan of funds through pledged supplementary lending to China Development Bank, The Export-Import Bank of China, and Agricultural Development Bank of China.

Another 61 billion yuan was lent to financial institutions through the standing lending facility to meet provisional liquidity demand, according to the PBOC.

The central bank has adopted open-market operations more frequently to manage liquidity in a more flexible and targeted manner.

The government maintains a prudent and neutral monetary policy in 2018 as it strives to balance growth and risk prevention.