China cbank injects 500 billion yuan via medium-term loans, rate unchanged -statement

SHANGHAI : China's central bank injected funds through medium-term loans into the financial system on Wednesday, while keeping the interest rate unchanged for the 20th month in a row.

The People's Bank of China (PBOC) said it was keeping the rate on 500 billion yuan (US$78.5 billion) worth of one-year medium-term lending facility (MLF) loans to some financial institutions steady at 2.95per cent from previous operations.

The PBOC's earlier decision to lower banks' reserve requirement ratio (RRR) also came into effect, freeing 1.2 trillion yuan worth of long-term fund, the central bank said in an online statement.

The central bank also injected another 10 billion yuan worth of seven-day reverse repos into the banking system, offseting the same amount of such short-term liquidity operations due on Wednesday.