China's central bank Wednesday pumped 80 billion yuan (12.1 billion U.S. dollars) into the financial system through open market operations.

The operations included 40 billion yuan (6.1 billion U.S. dollars) of seven-day reverse repos, 30 billion yuan of 14-day reverse repos and 10 billion yuan (1.5 billion U.S. dollars) 28-day reverse repos, the People's Bank of China said on its website.

Offset by 70 billion yuan (10.6 billion U.S. dollars) of maturing reverse repos, net injection on Wednesday stood at 10 billion yuan (1.5 billion U.S. dollars), following net injections of 260 billion yuan (39.4 billion U.S. dollars) on Monday and 20 billion yuan (3.0 billion U.S. dollars) on Tuesday.

The central bank made the operations to ease tight liquidity near the end of the year partly due to tax payments and maturing open market operations.

The central bank has increasingly relied on open market operations for liquidity management, rather than cuts in interest rates or reserve requirement ratios.

China pursued a "prudent and neutral" monetary policy in 2017, applying a full range of policy instruments to maintain basic stability in liquidity and hold interest rates at an appropriate level.

Email: gaohan@nbd.com.cn