China's central bank drains liquidity from market

BEIJING - China's central bank on Thursday drained 10 billion yuan ($1.58 billion) from the financial system through open market operations.

The operations included 100 billion yuan of seven-day reverse repos, 30 billion yuan of 28-day reverse repos and 20 billion yuan of 63-day reverse repos, the People's Bank of China (PBOC) said in a statement.

Offset by 160 billion yuan of maturing reverse repos, the operation resulted in a net withdrawal of 10 billion yuan from the market.

The interest rates for seven-day, 28-day and 63-day operations were unchanged at 2.5 percent, 2.8 percent and 2.95 percent respectively.

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

China plans to maintain a prudent and neutral monetary policy in 2018 as it strives to balance growth and risk prevention.