BEIJING - China's central bank continued to pump cash into the market in April to meet the demand for liquidity from financial institutions.

A total of 150 billion yuan (about 23.11 billion U.S. dollars) was last month injected into the market via the medium-term lending facility (MLF) to maintain liquidity in the banking system at a reasonable and sufficient level, according to the People's Bank of China (PBOC).

The funds will mature in one year at an interest rate of 2.95 percent.

Total outstanding MLF loans reached 5.4 trillion yuan by the end of April.

The MLF tool was introduced in 2014 to help commercial and policy banks maintain liquidity by allowing them to borrow from the central bank using securities as collateral.

In April, the PBOC did not inject funds through the standing lending facility.

PBOC data also shows that the total balance of pledged supplementary lending to the China Development Bank, the Export-Import Bank of China and the Agricultural Development Bank of China was 3.18 trillion yuan by the end of April.

China's central bank has pledged to make its prudent monetary policy more targeted and flexible to adapt better to the needs of high-quality development and put more focus on the efficiency of financial services to support the real economy.