People’s Bank of China injects 700b yuan medium-term loans

China’s central bank  rolled over maturing medium-term loans while keeping borrowing costs unchanged for the fourth straight month, Reuters reports.

The People’s Bank of China said in a statement it was keeping the rate on 700 billion yuan (US$100.74 billion) worth of one-year medium-term lending facility (MLF) loans to financial institutions steady at 2.95 percent from previous operations.

Analysts do not expect a change for the country’s benchmark loan prime rate (LPR) on Thursday.

The fresh fund injection well exceeds two batches of MLF loans that are set to expire in August, with a total volume of 550 billion yuan.

The PBOC said in the statement that the rollover was a one-off MLF operation for the whole month to “fully meet market demand”.

It also said it injected another 50 billion yuan through seven-day reverse repos while also keeping the borrowing cost steady.

The MLF, one of the PBOC’s main tools in managing longer-term liquidity in the banking system, serves as a guide for the LPR, which is set monthly using assessments from 18 banks.