BEIJING — China's central bank on Aug 26 pumped 150 billion yuan ($21.25 billion) of funds into the market via the medium-term lending facility (MLF) to maintain liquidity.

The funds will mature in one year with an interest rate of 3.3 percent, according to the People's Bank of China (PBOC).

With no PBOC liquidity tools maturing on Aug 26, the operation effectively led to a net injection of the same amount of funds.

The MLF tool was introduced in 2014 to help commercial and policy banks maintain liquidity by allowing them to borrow from the central bank using securities as collateral.

China will keep its prudent monetary policy "neither too tight nor too loose" while maintaining market liquidity at a reasonable level in 2019.