PBOC keeps liquidity at ample level

Source: Xinhua | 2018-09-10

China’s central bank continued to pump cash into the money market in August to meet financial institutions’ demand for liquidity.

The People’s Bank of China said 532 billion yuan (US$77.8 billion) was injected into the market via the medium-term lending facility last month to keep ample liquidity in the banking system.

The funds will mature in one year at an interest rate of 3.3 percent. Total outstanding MLF loans reached 5.12 trillion yuan as of the end of August.

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

In August, the PBOC also injected 9.1 billion yuan of funds through pledged supplementary lending to China Development Bank, The Export-Import Bank of China, and the Agricultural Development Bank of China.

The PBOC has adopted open-market operations more frequently to manage liquidity.