BEIJING — China's central bank conducted cash injection via open market operations to ease liquidity on Thursday.

The People's Bank of China (PBOC) conducted 60 billion yuan (about $8.9 billion) of seven-day reverse repos, with an interest rate of 2.45 percent.

The injection saw a net 20 billion yuan in cash pumped into the market on Thursday, offset by 40 billion yuan in maturing reverse repos.

In Thursday's interbank market, the overnight Shanghai Interbank Offered Rate, which measures the cost at which banks lend to one another, rose 6.1 basis points to 2.786 percent.

The central bank has increasingly relied on open-market operations for liquidity, rather than cuts in interest rates or reserve requirement ratios to maintain prudent monetary policy.

China set the tone of its monetary policy in 2017 as prudent and neutral, keeping an appropriate liquidity level but avoiding excessive liquidity injections.

The central bank has tried to strike a balance between financial deleveraging, aimed at defusing risks, and shoring up economic growth.