BEIJING - The People's Bank of China (PBOC), the country's central bank, said Tuesday that it will continue the prudent monetary policy and lay more stress on striking a balance between tight and loose.

The PBOC will maintain its "policy continuity and stability" and create a financial environment conducive to Chinese economy's restructuring and upgrading, it said in its monetary policy report for the fourth quarter released Tuesday.

The PBOC will use a string of monetary policy tools to manage liquidity on the market and facilitate the monetary market stability in line with domestic and foreign economic indicators, it noted.

"The central bank will guide more credit resources to flow to the rural economy, small and micro-firms to lend more support to the real economy," it added.

Latest figures showed that China's consumer inflation, a main gauge of inflationary pressure, dipped to the lowest level in more than five years, fuelling market hopes of further easing in monetary policies to support the faltering economy.

The Chinese economy is confronted with a set of existing problems and new challenges. The rebalancing global economy faces a divergence of economic performance and macro-policies in different regions, said the PBOC.