BEIJING, Jan. 10 (Xinhua) -- China's central bank skipped open market operations for a fourth consecutive day Thursday, citing abundant liquidity.

As reverse repos worth 70 billion yuan (about 10.3 billion U.S. dollars) matured Thursday, the People's Bank of China (PBOC) effectively withdrew the same amount of funds from financial institutions.

"Liquidity in the banking system is at a relatively high level," a PBOC statement said.

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

China will keep its monetary policy "neither too tight nor too loose" while maintaining market liquidity at a reasonably ample level in 2019, according to the annual Central Economic Work Conference held last month.