Central bank injects more money into market

BEIJING - China's central bank continued to pump money into the market to ease a liquidity strain?last week.

The People's Bank of China (PBOC) conducted 395 billion yuan ($61.16 billion) of seven-day reverse repurchase agreements (repo) from Monday to Friday, a process in which central banks purchase securities from banks with an agreement to resell them in the future.

The reverse repos were all priced to yield 2.25 percent.

This week's injections have resulted in a net 15 billion yuan pumped into the market, offset by 380 billion yuan in maturing reverse repos.

This follows a net injection of 180 billion yuan into the financial system last week.

The continuous injections showed that the country's money supply was a bit tight, analysts said.

On Friday's interbank market, the benchmark overnight Shanghai Interbank Offered Rate (Shibor), which measures the cost at which Chinese banks lend to one another, fell to 2.014 percent. The rate reached 2.017 percent on Thursday, the highest level in a month.

The Shibor for two-week loans rose the most on Friday, by 3.3 basis points to 2.821 percent.