BEIJING - The People's Bank of China (PBOC) skipped reverse repos for a fifth day in a row on Friday, citing reasonable and sufficient liquidity in the banking system.

No reverse repos, in which the central bank purchases securities from commercial banks through bidding with an agreement to sell them back in the future, became mature on Friday.

The PBOC has injected liquidity of 1.57 trillion yuan ($228 billion) into the market with open market operations since the beginning of this month.

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