BEIJING, March 14 (Xinhua) -- China's central bank on Wednesday drained 50 billion yuan (7.94 billion U.S. dollars) from the financial system through open market operations.

The operations included 30 billion yuan of seven-day reverse repos and 20 billion yuan of 28-day reverse repos, the People's Bank of China (PBOC) said in a statement.

The interest rates for seven-day and 28-day operations were unchanged at 2.5 percent and 2.8 percent, respectively.

The central bank has increasingly relied on open market operations for liquidity management, rather than cuts in interest rates or reserve requirement ratios.

China plans to maintain a prudent and neutral monetary policy in 2018 as it strives to balance growth and risk prevention.