The People's Bank of China yesterday drained 175 billion yuan (US$24.6 billion) from the interbank market through central bank bill issues and repurchase transactions.

The PBoC issued 75 billion yuan of one-year bills with a yield of 4.0583 percent, flat from last week. It also conducted 100 billion yuan of 28-day repos at a yield of 3.2 percent, also flat from last week. The large size of open-market operations sent the market clear signals of further efforts to curb high inflation.