BEIJING, Feb. 7 (Xinhua) -- China's central bank suspended open market operations for the 10th consecutive working day Wednesday, citing sufficient liquidity in the banking system.

The People's Bank of China said on its website that it has released 120 billion yuan (about 19 billion U.S. dollars) of liquidity through central treasury cash management tools, putting liquidity at a relatively high level.

On Wednesday, 100 billion yuan of reverse repos matured.

A reverse repo is a process by which the central bank purchases securities from commercial banks through bidding, with an agreement to sell them back in the future.

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

China will maintain a prudent and neutral monetary policy in 2018 as the world's second-largest economy strives to balance growth with risk prevention.