China’s central bank keeps MLF rate unchanged on Monday

The People’s Bank of China, China’s central bank, on Monday added 995 billion yuan ($138.84 billion) worth of one-year medium-term lending facility (MLF) loans to some financial institutions, but kept the policy rate unchanged.

In order to maintain reasonable and ample liquidity in the banking system, the central bank conducted 89 billion yuan ($12.52 billion) of seven-day reverse repos at an interest rate of 1.8 percent.

In addition, a total of 995 billion yuan was also injected into the market via the MLF, which will mature in one year at an interest rate of 2.5 percent, unchanged compared to the previous operation, according to a statement on the central bank’s website on Monday.

Some market analysts said the central bank is likely to keep the one-year Loan Prime Rate, unchanged too on January 20, as the LPR often mirrors the one-year MLF rate.