THE central bank Tuesday pumped more money into the market to ease a liquidity strain.

    The People’s Bank of China (PBOC) conducted 100 billion yuan (US$15.5 billion) of seven-day reverse repurchase agreements (repo), a process in which central banks purchase securities from banks with an agreement to resell them in the future.

    The reverse repo was priced to yield 2.25 percent, unchanged from Friday’s injection of 30 billion yuan, according to a PBOC statement.

    The move followed a net injection of 110 billion yuan and 120 billion yuan into the financial system Thursday and Wednesday.

    On Tuesday’s interbank market, the benchmark overnight Shanghai Interbank Offered Rate (Shibor), which measures the cost at which Chinese banks lend to one another, was down by 4.57 basis points to 2.0033 percent.

    (Xinhua)