China’s central bank pumped a record Rmb450bn ($72bn) into money markets yesterday in an attempt to satisfy a huge demand for cash before next week’s Chinese New Year holiday.
The liquidity injection is a short-term move and is not a shift in monetary policy, but analysts said it underscored how the central bank had honed its use of open market operations to ensure a more stable funding backdrop for banks, investors and companies.
In previous years, money market rates in China almost always jumped just before the holiday as companies rushed to pay cash bonuses to workers and individuals drew down their savings to buy gifts. But the central bank this year has so far succeeded in preventing such a spike.