BEIJING, July 22 -- China's central bank on Monday lowered the interest rate on seven-day reverse repos from 1.8 percent to 1.7 percent.

The move aims to strengthen counter-cyclical adjustments to better support the real economy, the People's Bank of China said in an online statement.

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

The central bank conducted 58.2 billion yuan (about 8.16 billion U.S. dollars) of seven-day reverse repos at an interest rate of 1.7 percent Monday.

The operation was to keep liquidity reasonable and ample in the banking system, the central bank said.