China's central bank injects liquidity

China's central bank announced a forward repurchase operation (repo) on Thursday, which will lead to the first liquidity injection in the past nine weeks through open market operations. The People's Bank of China (PBoC) said in a statement that it conducted a 14-day repo of 70 billion yuan at a bid rate of 3.8 percent and a 28-day repo of 44 billion yuan at 4 percent. Together with the repos of 63 billion yuan on Tuesday, the liquidity injected by the central bank will stand at 55 billion yuan, deducting 232 billion yuan worth of repos due this week. The PBoC has drained liquidity through open market operations in the past eight weeks, which withdrew capital of 62 billion yuan and 98 billion yuan respectively in the past two weeks. China's liquidity is affected by funds outstanding for foreign exchange, which saw a slower rise of 120 billion yuan in February from the 430-billion yuan increase in January, according to the central bank. Zhong Zhengsheng, chief macroeconomic researcher with Guosen Securities, said that the moderate interest rate in the monetary market will lead to steady growth in funds outstanding for foreign exchange. Analyst Yang Weijiao said that the liquidity injection this week came from capital that was due, which meant no need for any changes in central monetary policies.