BEIJING, Jan. 16 (Xinhua) -- China's central bank on Wednesday injected liquidity into the banking system through reverse repos to offset the impact from a tax payment peak.

The People's Bank of China, the central bank, conducted 350 billion yuan (51.76 billion U.S. dollars) of seven-day reverse repos at an interest rate of 2.55 percent, and 220 billion yuan of 28-day reverse repos at a rate of 2.85 percent.

The operations aimed to maintain reasonable and sufficient liquidity in the banking system to offset the ongoing peak of tax payment, the central bank said in a statement.

Reverse repos enable the central bank to purchase securities from commercial banks through bidding with an agreement to sell them back in the future.