BEIJING, Jan. 23 (Xinhua) -- China's central bank Thursday injected 240.5 billion yuan (34.9 billion U.S. dollars) of funds into the market to maintain liquidity, by renewing the targeted medium-term lending facility (TMLF).
The People's Bank of China (PBOC) renewed 257.5 billion yuan in TMLF operations that came due Thursday, with the new operation of 240.5 billion yuan.
The funds have a maximum maturity of one year and an annual interest rate of 3.15 percent, flat with the previous level, the PBOC said on its website.
This was the first maturity since the TMLF tool was introduced in December 2018 to encourage loans to small and private businesses.
Large commercial banks, joint-stock banks and major city commercial banks that lend heavily to the real economy and meet macro prudent requirements can apply for the TMLF.
No reverse repo operations were conducted Thursday, said the PBOC.
