China central bank makes biggest weekly short-term cash injection since 2019

SHANGHAI – China’s central bank stepped up liquidity support this week by making the biggest weekly cash injection through a short-term bond instrument since 2019 to help financial institutions smoothly tide over the end of the year.

The People’s Bank of China (PBOC) injected 183 billion yuan ($26.28 billion) through the seven-day reverse repurchase agreements in open market operations on Friday, according to an online statement.

The PBOC attributed the liquidity offerings to “maintaining steady year-end liquidity level”.

With 2 billion yuan worth of such reverse repos maturing on Friday, the PBOC injected a net 181 billion yuan on the day. And it brought the weekly cash offerings via the liquidity tool to a net 975 billion yuan, the most since January 2019.

($1 = 6.9625 Chinese yuan)