China central bank skips open market operations

BEIJING - China's central bank suspended open market operations on Tuesday for the second working day as liquidity remained ample.

Liquidity in the banking system was at a "relatively high" level, said the People's Bank of China on its website.

The suspension came after injections of 20 billion yuan ($3.14 billion) and 50 billion yuan, through seven-day reverse repos by the central bank on Friday and Thursday last week, respectively.

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 central bank has increasingly relied on open market operations for liquidity management, rather than cuts in interest rates or reserve requirement ratios.

China has vowed to maintain a prudent and neutral monetary policy in 2018 to balance growth and risk prevention.