China central bank renews medium-term policy loans, rate unchanged for a sixth month By Reuters

© Reuters. FILE PHOTO: Headquarters of the People’s Bank of China (PBOC), the central bank, is pictured in Beijing, China September 28, 2018. REUTERS/Jason Lee

SHANGHAI (Reuters) – China’s central bank rolled over maturing medium-term policy loans while keeping interest rate unchanged for a sixth straight month on Friday, matching market expectations.

The People’s Bank of China (PBOC) said it was keeping the rate on 100 billion yuan ($14.8 billion) worth of one-year medium-term lending facility (MLF) loans to some financial institutions unchanged at 2.85% from the previous operation.

In a poll of 29 market watchers conducted this week, all respondents forecast no change to the MLF rate.

With the same amount of such MLF loans maturing on Friday, the operation resulted in a zero net cash injection into the banking system.

The central bank also injected 3 billion yuan through seven-day reverse repos while keeping borrowing cost unchanged at 2.1%, according to an online statement.

($1 = 6.7542 )