BEIJING — China's central bank injected 240 billion yuan (about $36.36 billion) into the market via open market operations Wednesday to ease liquidity.

The People's Bank of China (PBOC) conducted 240 billion yuan of reverse repos. Meanwhile, 240 billion yuan of reverse repos matured, meaning the net cash injection is zero.

A reverse repo is a process by which the central bank purchases securities from commercial banks through bidding, with an agreement to sell them back in the future.

On Wednesday, the PBOC conducted 160 billion yuan of seven-day reverse repos priced to yield 2.45 percent, 70 billion yuan of 14-day contracts with a yield of 2.6 percent, and 10 billion yuan of 63-day contracts with a yield of 2.9 percent.

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

China set the tone of its 2017 monetary policy as prudent and neutral, keeping appropriate liquidity levels while avoiding excessive liquidity injections.