China's central bank made a net cash injection via open market operations on Wednesday in an effort to ease a cash strain.

The People's Bank of China (PBOC) conducted 120 billion yuan (about 17.4 billion U.S. dollars) in reverse repos, a process by which the central bank purchases securities from banks through bidding, with an agreement to sell them back in the future.

The injection saw a net 55 billion yuan pumped into the market on Wednesday, offset by 65 billion yuan in maturing reverse repos.

The operations included seven-day reverse repos priced to yield 2.35 percent, 14-day contracts with a yield of 2.5 percent, and 28-day agreements with a yield of 2.65 percent, according to a central bank statement.

The central bank said Tuesday that directional bank reserve requirement ratio cuts would continue this year to reward commercial banks that support agriculture and small businesses.

The central bank has lowered the reserve requirement ratio this year for most of the country's commercial banks as they provided credit support as required for agriculture and small businesses in 2016, said an official with the PBOC.

To encourage credit support for agriculture and small businesses, the central bank introduced directional bank reserve requirement ratio cuts in 2014. The list of commercial banks rewarded with lower deposit requirements are revealed in February every year.

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