Central bank continues net cash injection via reverse repos

BEIJING - China's central bank has continued its net cash injections via open market operations, easing the repos liquidity strain.

The People's Bank of China conducted 150 billion yuan ($22.7 billion) of reverse repos, a process by which the central bank purchases securities from commercial banks through bidding with an agreement to sell them back in the future.

The injection saw a net 40 billion yuan pumped into the market Monday, offset by 110 billion yuan in maturing reverse repos. This came after a net injection of 90 billion yuan Friday and 20 billion yuan Thursday.

Monday's operations included seven-day reverse repo priced to yield 2.45 percent, 14-day contracts with a yield of 2.6 percent and 63-day contracts with a yield of 2.9 percent, all unchanged from previous operations, according to a central bank statement.

Despite the injection, in Monday's interbank market the overnight Shanghai Interbank Offered Rate (Shibor), which measures the cost at which banks lend to one another, climbed to 2.72 percent, the highest in more than two weeks. The Shibor for one-month loans rose slightly to 4.02 percent.

The central bank has increasingly relied on open market operations for liquidity management, rather than cuts in interest rates or reserve requirement ratios.

China set the tone of its 2017 monetary policy as prudent and neutral, keeping appropriate liquidity levels but avoiding excessive liquidity injections.