SHANGHAI, Oct 15 (Reuters) - China's central bank on Thursday injected 500 billion yuan ($74.48 billion) worth of medium-term loans into the banking system and kept borrowing costs unchanged for the sixth straight month.
The People's Bank of China (PBOC) said in a statement it was keeping the rate on one-year medium-term lending facility (MLF) loans to financial institutions steady at 2.95% from previous operations.
Analysts expect the rate decision could indicate no change for the country's benchmark loan prime rate (LPR) next Tuesday.
The PBOC attributed the fund injection to "keep the banking system liquidity reasonably ample", while "fully meeting financial institutions' demand", according to the online statement.
It added that Thursday's MLF operation would cover rollover offseting a batch of such loans expiring on Friday, with a volume of 200 billion yuan.
The PBOC also said it has injected another 50 billion yuan through reverse repo operations on the same day, with the rate unchanged.
($1 = 6.7136 Chinese yuan) (Reporting by Winni Zhou and Andrew Galbraith; Editing by Sam Holmes)
