China's central bank on Friday conducted a 700-billion-yuan (about 98.5 billion U.S. dollars) medium-term lending facility (MLF) operation to maintain reasonable and ample liquidity in the banking system.

The MLF operation has a one-year maturity with an interest rate of 2 percent, unchanged from the rate of the previous operation conducted last month.

After the operation, the outstanding balance of the MLF stood at 6.789 trillion yuan.