SHANGHAI : China’s central bank rolled over maturing medium-term policy loans while keeping a interest rate unchanged for the fourth straight month on Thursday, largely matching market expectations.
The People’s Bank of China (PBOC) said it was keeping the rate on 650 billion yuan ($93.53 billion) worth of one-year medium-term lending facility (MLF) loans to some financial institutions unchanged at 2.75 per cent from the previous operation.
In a poll of 24 market watchers conducted this week, 20 participants predicted the PBOC would keep the interest rate on the one-year MLF unchanged. The remaining four respondents expected a marginal rate cut.
With 500 billion yuan worth of MLF loans set to expire on the same day, the operation resulted in a net 150 billion yuan fresh fund injection into the banking system.
The central bank also injected 2 billion yuan through seven-day reverse repos while keeping borrowing costs unchanged at 2.00 per cent, it said in an online statement.
The PBOC cut the amount of cash banks must set aside as reserves earlier this month to support an economy hurt by COVID-19 shocks.
($1 = 6.9498 Chinese yuan)