China 1 Year MLF Rate

The People's Bank of China (PBoC) injected CNY 300 billion into financial institutions through a one-year medium-term lending facility (MLF) on February 25th, maintaining the rate at 2.0%. This fell short of the CNY 500 billion in MLF loans maturing this month, resulting in a net liquidity withdrawal of CNY 200 billion. The PBoC stated that the loan operation aimed to "keep banking system liquidity reasonably ample." Following the operation, outstanding MLF loans stood at CNY 4.094 trillion. While the MLF rate previously served as China's primary policy rate, the central bank has recently shifted focus to a shorter-term monetary policy tool to more effectively guide market rates.