China's central bank skips reverse repos Tuesday

BEIJING - China's central bank skipped open market operations on Tuesday, citing abundant liquidity in the financial system.

"The relatively high liquidity level in the banking system can offset the impact from factors including maturing reverse repos," the People's Bank of China said on its website.

On Tuesday, 80 billion yuan of reverse repos matured. Another 60 billion yuan will mature Wednesday.

A reverse repo is 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 People's Bank of China injected 290 billion yuan into the banking system through reverse repos and the medium-lending facility (MLF) last week, up from 270 billion yuan in the previous week.

On Sept 7 and Sept 17, MLFs worth 176.5 billion yuan and 265 billion yuan will mature, respectively, according to Wind Info.

China will keep its prudent monetary policy "neither too tight nor too loose" while maintaining market liquidity at a reasonably ample level in 2019.