BEIJING - China maintains a prudent monetary policy and keeps it neither tight nor loose at the current stage, an official with the People's Bank of China (PBOC) said Thursday.

Liu Guoqiang, vice governor of the central bank, said at a press conference that China "has no intent to tighten or relax monetary policy".

Liu said the PBOC's use of cash management tools such as repos and medium-term loans did not construe changes in monetary policy.

His comments came after the central bank increased its open market operations recently, stoking speculations that the country may loosen its monetary policy stance.

The country's monetary policy should be pre-tuned and fine-tuned in a timely manner to ensure economic growth remains in a reasonable range, said Sun Guofeng, head of the monetary policy department of the PBOC.

China will continue with its prudent monetary policy, make regulations more forward-looking, targeted and effective, and maintain a reasonable growth of money supply, to create a sound monetary environment for the country's economic development, Sun said.